Collaboration Rules
An interesting article about the group effort to make free software or
cars ...
Highlight:
Toyota is remarkably similar to Linux in the way it blends key
characteristics of both markets and hierarchies. Like markets, the
Toyota and Linux communities can be self-organizing, but unlike
markets, they don’t use cash or contracts at critical junctures. Like
hierarchies, Toyota and Linux enjoy low transaction costs, but unlike
hierarchies, their members may belong to many different organizations
(or to none at all) and are not corseted by specific, predefined roles
and responsibilities. And like hierarchies, members share a common
purpose, but that purpose emanates from self-motivation rather than
from the external incentives or sanctions that hierarchies generally
impose. In these respects, Toyota and Linux represent the best of both
worlds. An analysis of their common characteristics suggests how
high-performance organizations remain productive and inventive even
under grueling conditions. We believe those lessons can significantly
improve the way work in most organizations gets done.
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0507/article/R0507H.jhtml
- Knut Yrvin
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