The End of Management and the Rise of Organizational Democracy

Organizational consultants Cloke and Goldsmith team up to call for a new organizational order that will transform the 21st century workplace. Their latest collaboration, The End of Management and the Rise of Organizational Democracy, demonstrates how traditional structures that are "inflexible, static, autocratic, coercive bureaucracies" can be transformed into "agile, evolving, democratic, collaborative, self-managing webs of association." The authors demonstrate concretely how managers can adapt techniques and concepts such as building self-managing teams, implementing collaborative processes, and creating a context of values, ethics, and integrity for their organizations. While some of the ideas are familiar, Cloke and Goldsmith present a convincing framework for managers to use as they rise to the challenge of organizational change.