NETWORKING FOR CHANGE: A CASE STUDY OF ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING, PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND INDIVIDUAL THRIVING IN AN INCREASINGLY COMPLEX BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

摘要

At the beginning of the 21st Century, the context of employment is changing rapidly and dramatically.rnElements in the business environment are creating pressures, some of them conflicting, whilst the interests of managers as agents of their employing organisation and the same managers as individuals can be seen as increasingly polarised.rnExamples include the following:-rnAttempts to elaborate old models of organisational change to make them applicable to these complex new situations may be affecting the likelihood of their adoption - most managers probably want simple answers. "Managerial wheezers", peddled by consultants, are still lucrative; "Knowledge Management" is a current example.rnCorporate employment declines as outsourcing, individual contracts and a journeyman, "knowledge worker" concept gains currency.rnNot-for-profit organisations, formerly bastions of more ethical practice, are under pressures of "managerialism" to become more like commercial enterprises in their processes.rnIn consequence, ethical dilemmas and individual stress are both proliferating; some of the issues spill over into legal territory.rnAttempts at "simple" solutions to the race for competitiveness can have as many unpredicted systemic consequences as more sophisticated ones. Two case studies are used to illustrate this range, raising more questions than they answer.