Talking About Organizations Podcast
24: Learning by Knowledge-Intensive Firms (Part 2)
Feb 14, 2017
William Starbuck, a renowned author notable for his insights on knowledge-intensive firms, delves into the intricate balance between organization growth and expertise. He discusses the crucial role of low-level personnel in fostering customer relationships and warns against the downsizing pitfalls that overlook employee retention. The conversation also navigates the transition to knowledge economies and critiques the outsourcing of engineering talent across countries. Finally, Starbuck emphasizes the need for adaptive management strategies in today's evolving workplace.
43:29
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Quick takeaways
- Knowledge-intensive firms often grow through administrative overhead, undermining expertise and creating inefficiencies in adapting to change.
- Effective organizational change requires balancing structural rigidity with adaptability, while critically evaluating old routines to foster innovation.
Deep dives
Growth Tensions in Knowledge-Intensive Firms
Knowledge-intensive firms often experience growth driven more by administrative overhead than by expertise. The speaker highlights a prevalent tendency where organizations, particularly military ones, expand their overhead structures quickly while struggling to maintain an effective growth of expertise. This imbalance can lead to inefficiencies, especially when organizations attempt to slim down by targeting overhead without recognizing the intricate relationship between different roles and the expertise needed for sustainable operations. Therefore, failing to properly address the growth of both administrative and operational capacities can create organizations that are ill-equipped for adjusting to change.
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