End of Bureaucracy and the Rise of the Intelligent Organization

The Pinchots ( Intrapreneuring ) here tackle the numbing influence of bureaucracies, which, they write, are ``no more appropriate to sophisticated work today than serfdom was to the factory work of the early Industrial Revolution.'' They foresee a conversion to post-bureaucratic organizations in which teams form the basic unit of empowerment, freeing employees to concentrate on total quality, high performance tasks, reengineering and intrapreneuring. The authors bolster their arguments with case studies (Dana, ConAgra, the Canadian National Railroad) and perceptive positions on benchmarking, customer service and workplace responsibility. Their material on the factors that make teams effective illuminates ideas expounded by total quality management theoreticians. Stressing that intrapreneurial experimentation is needed so ``the people upstairs notice what is working,'' the authors present a managerial construct worth considering. (Mar.)