Strategic HR A different slant
Platform- and blockchainbased
network organisations
Most distributed networks benefit
from technology-based platforms.
For example, an enterprise social
network such as Yammer, Jive /
Aurea or Workplace by Facebook.
However, it is also possible to use
new digital platforms such as
Catalant or InnerMobility by
Gloat, which have been especially
designed to help people work
together. These platforms can be
used internally to provide
additional opportunities for staff
to volunteer for particular roles
or projects, gaining broader
experience and responding to
their personal interests or helping
to develop their careers. They can
also be used externally, tapping
into a broad pool of contingent
workers who may be interested
in undertaking a particular
task or project. Examples of
organisations using such
platforms include Shell
and Unilever.
Organisations can also come
together through a platform to
create a new digital ecosystem.
Haier is probably the best
example of this (Hamel and
Zanini, 2018).
In addition, there are now
opportunities to use blockchainbased
platforms like Colony to
contract with workers and pay
them using blockchain tokens.
These platform- and blockchain-
based organisations provide very
new opportunities for even more
innovative design and we will
need to see how they develop over
time. However, they do continue
the shift towards people
centricity, potentially providing
the best opportunity to combine
the needs of an organisation
and individuals.
From research to reality
HR and organisation design
professionals need to think
creatively about these new
opportunities to organise
Organisational options through
divergent and convergent thinking
People and
organisation
outcome
Organisation
principle
Employee
expectations
Divergent
thinking
Identify
options
differently. Note, however, this is
not just another call to move
‘from hierarchies (i.e. functions)
to networks’. Every organisation
is different and so the right design
will be different.
Companies should therefore
always seek to ensure they have
clear objectives before they
embark on any organisation
redesign or transformation.
These objectives should include
the people and organisational
outcomes (human, social and
organisation capital) that are to
be created; principles that define
About the author
Implement
solutions
Mitigate
drawbacks
of chosen
solution
Convergent
thinking
Choose
solutions
how the organisation should
work; and the needs or
expectations of employees.
Employers should think creatively
about a range of organisational
options before picking the best
solution. However, in many cases
companies will want to
incorporate communities and
networks or platforms alongside
existing functions and horizontal
teams in melded organisations.
It may be helpful to repeat that
reducing hierarchy or
introducing self-management is
not normally the greatest new
References
l Ernst, C., and Chrobot-
Mason, D. (2010). Boundary
Spanning Leadership: Six
Practices for Solving
Problems, Driving Innovation,
and Transforming
Organizations. McGraw-Hill
Education.
l Hamel, G., and Zanini, M.
(2018). ‘The End of
Bureaucracy’. Harvard
Business Review (HBR)
l Ingham, J. (2017). The Social
Organization: Developing
Employee Connections and
Relationships for Improved
Business Performance.
Kogan Page.
l Laloux, F. (2014). Reinventing
Organizations: A Guide to
Creating Organizations
Inspired by the Next Stage
of Human Consciousness.
Nelson Parker.
l Robertson, B. (2015).
Holacracy: The New
Management System for a
Rapidly Changing World.
Henry Holt and Co.
l Yeung, A., and Ulrich, D.
(2019). Reinventing the
Organization: How
Companies Can Deliver
Radically Greater Value in
Fast-Changing Markets.
HBR Press.
Jon Ingham is a former
international HR director
who now works as a
strategic OD consultant,
researcher, trainer,
speaker and writer.
He has been a
co-author with Dave
Ulrich and is the author of
The Social Organization,
which explains how
people and organisations
can be developed to
create effective
connections, relationships
and conversations, or
social capital.
Ingham has also been
recognised as one of
2019’s top global
influencers in HR
technology by Human
Resource Executive.
opportunity for organisation
design. Reducing hierarchy is best
seen as a consequence of good
design, not its objective.
Horizontal teams are flatter
than functions and communities
and networks are flatter still –
often completely flat. So as
companies introduce more
innovative organisation
architectures they tend to find
levels of hierarchy fall.
It is also important to note that
organisation design should never
just be about structure. Therefore
companies will often want to
make aligned changes to other
elements of their organisations.
For example: their people’s skills,
behaviours and relationships,
their processes, and the physical
and digital workplaces people use
to do their work. HR
38 HR October 2019 hrmagazine.co.uk
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