Comments on: The Danger of Under-Management http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/ Economics of organizations, strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, and more Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:11:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Creative Class » Blog Archive » Managing for Creativity - Creative Class http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-72543 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:38:58 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-72543 [...] Cities »by Richard FloridaFri Mar 23rd 2007 at 11:59am EDTManaging for Creativity Over at Organizations and Markets, Peter Klein has something very interesting to say about  “under-management.”   ” Sure, we [...]

]]> By: Peter Klein http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13701 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:59:57 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13701 Gary, thanks for asking. I certainly think the benefits of “empowerment” have been oversold. Nicolai and I are working on a paper that walks through these issues more systematically. We will try to blog about it in the coming weeks.

]]> By: Gary Furash http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13692 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:05:41 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13692 Peter, can you blog about this a bit more explicitly. The whole “empower a bunch of people and you’ll magically get higher productivity than you would in a firm” seems dubious to me. I think hierarchies and leaders would naturally emerge anyway (they do, even on open source projects). The idea that every firm should be some kind of remote version of a Kibbutz strikes me as odd.

]]> By: Kevin Carson http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13510 Sat, 24 Mar 2007 06:35:51 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13510 I think you’re right, if “leaderless organization” just means a vacuum of leadership at the top, without any corresponding authority of those at the bottom to manage themselves for real.

But I believe agency and information problems are cut way down if the leadership’s authority comes from those doing the work, and the people making the decisions internalize all the costs and benefits of the decisions they make. Making the workforce the residual claimant is the best way to eliminate conflicts of interest and replace administrative with strong market incentives.

]]> By: Managing for Creativity « The Creativity Exchange http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13509 Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:39:05 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13509 [...] Peter’s post got me thinking about what I’ve learned after many years of studying large companies like Toyota, high-tech Silicon Valley startups, research environments, and creative people. [...]

]]> By: spostrel http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13496 Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:04:21 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2007/03/22/the-danger-of-under-management/#comment-13496 Talk about a contingent question! Everything from the psychlogy and culture of the employees to the nature of the technology employed to the characteristics of demand would impinge on optimal authority levels.

A general point: If everyone on a team were cogniitively unbiased and motivated to maximize the objective function of the team, then all the coordinating activities necessary could be accomplished without trammeling anyone’s discretion. (By restricting discretion, I mean preventing or deterring an agent from taking a feasible action that he prefers/believes is best for the team.) As Madison put it, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

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