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Флигер М., Колодзейчяк А.
ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННЫХ СТРУКТУР К ВИРТУАЛЬНЫМ СЕТЯМ С ПОЗИЦИИ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ПЕРСОНАЛОМ. ПРОЦЕССНЫЙ ПОДХОД
Flieger M., Kolodziejczyk A.
THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION STRUCTURES TOWARDS VIRTUAL NETWORKS FROM THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE. THE
PROCESS APPROACH.
Ключевые слова: организационные структуры, управление персоналом, процессный подход.
Keywords: organization structures, human resource management, process approach.
Аннотация: создание виртуальных сетевых команд напрямую связано с происхождением командам, организованных традиционным способом, отличающихся использованием преимущественно методов информационно-коммуникационных технологий (ICT) в управлении, обеспечивающих производство и поступление основного производственного фактора управления - информацию. В статье рассматриваются процессы перехода и представления управленческой команды от типовой формы к гибкой, изменяющейся форме управления, которая идет вне традиционной организационной структуры, при условии, когда местоположение рабочего места не фиксировано. Эта перспектива рассматривается в условиях процессного подхода, являющегося фундаментом создания виртуальной организации.
Absract: the creation of virtual network teams has its genesis in and a direct connection with teams organized in a traditional way, that means before a common use of information and communications technology (ICT) techniques in organizations. In industrial society the process of production required a worker to be present in a workplace. In a virtual network society the ICT technologies provide a production factor - information - for an employee and transform industry into services. In this article the evolution of functioning of a team is perceived in a context of a changing nature of work towards more flexible, the one that goes beyond traditional approach, when location of work is not a restriction. This perspective is supported by taking a process approach into consideration, the approach that is a base for creating a virtual organization.
and their implications has been forgotten be-
The purpose of this article is to present cause otherwise it may lead to serious organi-
the process of changes from managing a corpo- zational dysfunctions.
rate team (traditional perspective) towards a
team that functions in a virtual network space. Determinants of changes
The presentation of the essence of modern per- At the turn of the 20th and 21st century
spective on an employee and introducing the appeared new directions of transformations
concept of human capital, indispensable for an connected with development of ICT tech-
organization (with modern organization struc- niques, which affected the following1: tures) to function, is also shown. Many con- - creating new, global employment op-
cepts of managing people in organization and portunities, reducing costs connected with cre-
organization itself were introduced so that the ating new jobs and commuting; including dis-
whole new perspective may be noticed by the tance learning (virtual universities);
readers. Only then will it be possible to work out the system of management methods and techniques which are complementary and coherent. It is crucial that none of the concepts Leksykon I by А. Ota*. L
r Kolodziejczyk-Olczak, Wyzsza Szkola Humanistyczno-
Ekonomiczna w Lodzi Publishing, Lodz, 2005, p. 171172
- reducing costs of education, giving new possibilities of self-education, better access to teaching materials, no need to move to academic centres;
- electronic trade that gives access to global markets for all companies, facilitating the access to a wider range of offers of goods and services for customers;
- modified organization of business activity, streamlining of turnover and circulation of information between businesses, reducing costs of business activity, giving equal opportunities of access to resources and information.
Also a definition of managing evolved. J. Penc gives a clear example of changed approach and defines it as “forecasting, presenting future, not always certain, goals. He claims that the one who wants to be a good manager should have a moral courage to take risk and be held responsible for it. Otherwise, one can be only an official who supervises and impoverish oneself and one’s subordinates. Managing is a function of three complex variables: manager’s personality, subordinates personality, and a situation of managing”.1
The definition presented above clearly indicates that the concept of management has changed. The term manager appears next to the term supervisor, together with situational and character features, which differ this definition from previously applied. Still there exists a one-way structure: superior - subordinate.
Because of foreign literature sources, during examination of the phenomena described the term managing and manager will be used.
The evolution of the personnel function
Another evolutionary approach are the transformations of the personnel function in an organization. The classical approach is dominated by a resource point of view. Because of the dynamics of this scientific discipline, later the personnel function started to be considered as a human capital on the same level as other elements that have the influence on an enterprise value. In contemporary world the human capital is considered to be one of the indispensable factors that lead to achieve success both for individuals and companies, home and glob-
1Penc J., Rola i umiej^tnosci menedZerskie: sekrety sukcesu i kariery, Difin, Warszawa, 2005, p. 39.
al economy. In this view the capital is recognized as knowledge which has bigger and bigger influence on regional and national development. The demand for highly qualified workers is rising.2
Basing on the analysis of the literature, M. Morawski presents a new model of managing people based on the conception of the human capital3:
Involving all employees into enterprise opperations (intellectual, essential, emotional).
Creating strong organization culture which is supposed to integrate all the employees, strengthen bonds, encourage to cooperate.
Treating employees individually on every
field.
Allowing employees to participate in the process of managing the company, especially in issues that connect with their work environment; constant improvement of an organization by new ideas presented by employees.
Favoring the creation of informal communities of professionals, which will go beyond the borders of formal organization cells.
Introducing flexible organization structures, open and adjusting to changes of tasks, employees qualifications, and conditions of surroundings.
Carrying out interactive styles of managing in relations between superiors and subordinates in which the superior is a mentor, a trainer and an advisor.
Influencing proactive actions and behaviors of employees (taking risk, experimenting, searching for innovative solutions).
Constant complementing of employees’ competences by their development at work, as well as contacts and exchanging experiences with managers, taking experts’ advices and opinions, access to electronic education programmes, making use of written specialist experiences and enterprise databases, access to the Internet.
2Skorska A., Rola kapitalu ludzkiego w Regionalnej Strategii Innowacji Wojewodztwa Sl^skiego, [in:] S. Pangsy-Kania, K. Piech, Innowacyjnosc w Polsce w uj^ciu regionalnym- nowe teorie, rola funduszy unijnych
i klastrow, Wyd. Instytut Wiedzy i Innowacji, Warszawa, 2008, p. 266.
3Morawski M., Zarz^dzanie kapitalem ludzkim przedsi^biorstwa w warunkach gospodarki opartej na wiedzy, prezentacja, Wroclaw University of Economics, Wroclaw, 2012, 13.12.2011
Spreading the role of a mentor who is an indisputable master and has a considerable standing, who will take care of professional development of employees and will support them when recommending for a higher position, complementing their qualifications, and creating a vision of their career.
Departing from previous systems of remuneration, based on narrow defining of a job position and moving towards motivating dependent on employees’ results and development of their competences.
In the newest propositions, intangible values are separately evaluated and significantly increase the valuation of an organization (intellectual capital). The intellectual capital includes know - how and is connected with an individual (social and personal skills, experience, knowledge). A substantial interest in intangible assets issue is the reason why the literature presents various approaches to define them. Many aspects are taken into consideration however, one, commonly respected representation has not been worked out so far.
According to work in teams while using IT solutions, a telecommunication acts a big role. A possibility to work together by using an IT network infrastructure (work team supported by a computer) allows groups, which work according to the team principle, to use specialized computer programmes (groupware). The analysis of cooperating networks has a great significance for managing a computerised team work.1
An evolutionary form of hierarchical employees teams are project teams, created to perform a specified project. The project could be defined as a temporary undertaking which goal is to create an unique product or a service. Therefore, temporary state means that the undertaking has precisely determined dates of beginning and finishing, and the uniqueness means that a product or service is significantly different than others that have been worked out by an organization.2
1http://mfiles.pl/pl/index.php/Metody_pracy_zespo %C5% 82owej, 31.07.2012
2Matejun M., Szczepanczyk M., Komunikacja w
zespolach projektowych - studium przypadku, [in:]
Adamik A., Lachiewicz S. (editors), Wspolpraca w
rozwoju wspolczesnych organizacji, Lodz University of
The project teams often consist on people who do not know each other, come from different organization cultures, and have different experiences. Not until the moment of the team creation a special requirements, threats, benefits, and chances that are the result of team work appear when there is a new, common goal that requires to combine the work of all the team members. This means that goals should be understood in the same way by all members of the team and their accomplishment should be done in a coordinated way. A significant impediment is a temporary character of the team because of its liquidation after the project completion.
Strong and weak points of project teams (see table 1) show that the matrix form requires a change of the way of managing by a manager. Particularly important elements are team selection, conception of its operation and management.
New requirements for organizations in conditions of the knowledge-based economy require to search for better and better mechanisms of operating, that guarantee flexibility, innovation, and speed of decisions. New view on the most important asset of an organization
- people and their competences, subjectivity, and responsible - is needed.3
Modern form of project teams evolution are organizations with so-called pure process structures, which employees operate along a produced value chain. They are divided into groups in so-called process nests. Their main task is to recognize needs of end consumers and subsequent process nests that are their market. In this way individual employees determine a tunnels of macro- (concerning needs of end customers) and micro navigation (concerning needs of subsequent process nests), in which they move independently.
Technology Publishing, Lodz 2009, p. 230, [after:] Project Management Institute: Management de projet. Unreferentiel de connaissances, AFNOR, Paris, 1998, p.8.
3 Skrzypek E., Nowe podejscie do wiedzy w organizacji, [in:] Organizacyjne uczenie si§ w rozwoju kompetencji przedsi^biorstw, edited by A. Sitko-Lutek, E. Skrzypek, C.H. Beck, Warszawa 2009, p. 69 after: Davenport T.H., Prusak L., Working Knowledge- How OrganizationsManageWhatTheyKnow, Boston 1998, p.17.
Table 1 - Strong and weak points of project
Source: ownworkbased on: Kozusznik B,
Kierowanie zespolem pracowniczym, PWE, Warszawa 2005, p. 140 - 141.
Their actions are being monitored by the owners of separate processes who act the role of coaches, mentors and advisors. In these structures a different than traditional conception of an employee is needed.
Modern conception of an employee
Because of working in teams that use information and mobile technology, one can distinguish in the literature an analysis that concerns a definitional distinction on: telework workers, knowledge workers, network workers, and virtual workers.
In the scope of networking and virtualization of business activity that is occurring, people started to introduce flexible forms of work organization (including new forms of creating teams), to which telework can be counted in. Telework is a sign of forming a
contemporary organization and coexist with other indications of information society, which new conceptions such as learning organization, knowledge management and intellectual capital are developed in.
In the 1994 Bangemann report “Europe and the Global Information Society, Recommendations to the European Council” the telework was considered to be one of the pillars of the information society, next to creating new jobs for a mobile society, strengthening existing networks, speeding up creation of new and development of existing IT services. In 1995 the European Commission (DG XIII - 13) states: “teleworking can become a part of our future professional life”. Information and communication technology revolution has created various, new, flexible ways to work, including the possibility to partly move it outside a traditional office. In 1999 the website TelepracaPolska was launched. Contemporarily, telework is being connected with the concept of virtual organization and is being considered as an effect of information technology evolution and lessening of a physical job posi-tion.1
Another form of evolution of hierarchical teams towards virtual networks are teams made of knowledge workers. They should be visionaries, active, brilliant minds with an exuberant personality. However, these characteristics must be in common with knowledge and competences (see table 2). Knowledge workers should be involved intellectually, emotionally and essentially. This will be possible only when they are treated like e.g. business partners.2
As we can see in table 2 there are various concepts as for the character of knowledge based teams and the way they operate. However, what is worth to notice is that all those concepts and approaches should be considered at the same time to understand deeply what the knowledge teams are. The concepts mentioned above are complementary and each of them gives us some new, useful perspective that has
:Metody organizacji i zarz^dzania, edited by J. Czekaj CracowUniversity of Economics Publishing.
2 Skrzypek E., Nowe podejscie do wiedzy w organizacji, [in:] Organizacyjne uczenie si§ w rozwoju kompetencji przedsi^biorstw, edited by Sitko-Lutek A., Skrzypek E., C.H. Beck, Warszawa, 2009. p.69
teams________________________________________________
Strong points of project teams______________________
- a cut of formal, stiff organization rules;
possibility to act flexible and react fast to a
definite external order;
possibility to use various competences of the team members;
acquiring new skills by the team members;
possibility to exchange information and integration;
possibility to delegate tasks;______________________
Weak points of project teams________________________
- team members treat assigned task as secondary;
- conflicts against a background of different approaches to conceptions of tasks;
- conflicts between a formal supervisor and a project manager against the background of superiority, hierarchy of importance;
- internal conflict between team members that arises due to difficulties with determining where one should be involved more and who should listen to (a problem of double subordination);
- a lack of creative approach to problems because of transferring a routine from home teams;
- the time needed to complete a task, long
meetings, workshops._________________________________
Table 2 - Specific characteristics of knowledge workers teams
No. Source Author’sconcept Distinguishing feature
1 Janz, B.D. Colquitt, J.A., Noe, R.A. (1997), Knowledge worker team effectiveness: The role of autonomy, interdependence, team development, and contextual support variables, „Personal Psychology”, 50(4), 877 Autonomy can be the most important issue for knowledge worker teams because of the fact, that knowledge workers prefer autonomy rather than any other characteristic of work. Interdependency is a key for knowledge worker teams, because they are coordinative and innovative. Team maturity is probably connected with knowledge worker teams because of complexity of work they do Members of KWT focus on such process of behavior as idea and information sharing, supporting and innovative behaviors. Individual autonomy of team members. Required interdependency because of coordination of actions and innovations. Complexity of work. Sharing ideas and information. Supporting innovation through behavior.
2 Wageman R., Gordon, F.M. (2005), As the twig is bent: How group values shape emergent task interdependence in groups, „Organization Science”, 16(6), 687. For this type of teams structural features of a task are ambiguous or non-precise. Ambiguous and non-precise tasks.
3 Lewis K. (2004), Knowledge and performance in knowledge - worker teams: A longitudinal study of transactive memory systems, „Man-agement Science”, 50(11), 1519. KWT tasks are complex, ambiguous, and require from their members to use specialized knowledge, obtained by formal learning and experience. Results of KWT activity depend on the scope of carrying team members’ specialized knowledge into the team and integrate the one that is being distributed among team members. Ambiguous and complex tasks. Specialized knowledge. Distribution and integration of specialized knowledge.
4 Nonaka I., H. Takeuchi (1995). The Knowledge - Creating Company. Oxford University Press, New York. [citation after:] Lewis K. (2004) Knowledge and performance in knowledge - worker teams: A longitudinal study of transactive memory systems, „Management Science”, 50(11), 1519. The main goal of KWT (...) is to use specialized knowledge of team members as new products, services or solutions. Specialized knowledge is a subject of influence, creating new products, services or solutions isan effect.
5 Janz B.D., Prasarnphanich P. (2003). Understanding the antecedens of effective knowledge management: The importance of a knowledge - centered culture „Decision Sciences” 34(2), 351. The collectivity-oriented work environment gives more possibilities for workers to learn specialized knowledge from their colleagues who are supportive and willing to help others by working together, sharing information, and observing others. Teams act key role in enterprises that create knowledge, so members of these teams create new ideas by dialogue and discussion. Teams create a communication chan- Supporting members in their work. Sharing information. Specialized knowledge is a subject of influence, dialogue and discussion is a tool and creating new ideas is an effect. Creating new communication channels for knowledge distribution.
No. Source Author’sconcept Distinguishing feature
nel for those who search and those who transmit knowledge, this exchange leads to obtain better effects of business activity.
6 Campion M. A, Papper E. M, Medsker G.J. (1996), Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension, „Person-nel Psychology”, 49(2), 429. Professional worker jobs1 are more complex. Complexity of work always leads to higher levels of specified team characteristics. Especially characteristics connected with work designing the same as - management, participation, and significance (team members - author’s note) show a strong relation with complexity or level of work. Similarly, some complex characteristics, such as training and communication with other teams could be higher for professional worker jobs. Knowledge workers have higher level of freedom that concerns assigned tasks and ways of doing their job. So these workers are more able to decide voluntarily about becoming a part of a team or even initiating a new one. Work complexity. Self-management and members participation. Members training. Inter-team communication. Team members autonomy in the scope of assigned tasks and ways of performing work.
7 Dunphy D., Bryant, B. (1996), Teams: Panaceas Or prescriptions for improved performance? „Human Relations”, 49(5), 677. Knowledge worker teams and other ones that act in new economy, have multiple complementary skills and members of such teams come from different areas of an organization. Members heterogeneousness in a respect of skills, knowledge and the fact that members come from different areas of an organization.
8 Coleman D. (1999), Groupware: collaboration and knowledge sharing. [in:] Liebowitz, J. (red.), Knowledge Management Handbook, Vol. 12 No. 1, CRC Press, New York [citation after:] Shani, A.B., Sena J.A., Stebbins M. W. (2000), Knowledge work teams and groupware technology: lerning from Seagatesexperience, „Journal of Knowledge Management”, 4(2). Members of knowledge based teams have an access to various bases of knowledge and cooperate in creating new ideas, new products, new markets, new strategies, new organization models, new corporate visions, etc. Specialized knowledge is a subject of influence, developing new ideas, products, markets, and organization solutions is an effect.
9 Shani A.B., Sena J.A., Stebbins M.W. (2000), Knowledge work teams and groupware technology: learning from Seagates experience, „Journal of Knowledge Management”, 4(2). Knowledge based teams can be characterized as teams that work in nonroutine, non-linear transformation processes, where team members have big variety of skills and knowledge both technical and scientific. Tasks are non-routine an non-linear. Team members have big variety of skills and specialized knowledge.
Source: own work based on the literature.
1 In the quoted article [Campion, Papper, Medsker, 1996] authors do not use the term “knowledge worker team” ho w-ever, they say about teams which consist on knowledge workers (who have professional worker jobs such as: programmers, system analysts, compensation, insurance, HR management, and financial specialists)
Table 3 -The influence of ICT revolution on transformations of organization teams functioning___________________________________________________________
The influence of ICT revolution on transformations of organization teams functioning____________________________
- reducing the number of stationary workers,
- creating teams (satellites, agents) that carry out tasks assigned to external organizations,
- appearance of outsourcing,
- liberalization of working hours,
- new form of tasks,
- new form of carrying out tasks,
- flexible forms of working time,
- telework,
- appearance of skills connected with maintaining ICT systems,
- transformations of homogenous skills into interdisciplinary ones,
- workers become decisive and start to have an influence on their professional future and the direction of organization development,
- organizational learning when worker develops together with an organization,
- identification of workers’ talents and attempts to keep them within an organization,
- fragmentation of enterprises into small and micro enterprises that act a role of brokers and creation of competence teams,
- change of workers’ awareness to identify with organization values,
- necessity to make decisions in very short amount of time,
- planning development profiles,
- individualization: financial and in scope of motivation,
- change of an approach to accounting the work from hourly to task accounting,
- building of project teams focused on solving the problem,
- multidirectional communication,
- low level of job positions formalization,
- high level of identifying competences._________________
Source: own work.
been pointed out as distinguished features in the table. Taking all of them into consideration is crucial in everyday management to match management methods and technics correctly, which is one of the main functions of human resource management today. The lack of understanding above may lead to serious organizational dysfunctions.
One of the most important factors influencing team work in contemporary organizations is ICT technology development, which is usually generally understood by managers. The problem, however, is that they do not know exactly what it means for the practice of their organizational structures and human re-
source management. Thus, in table 3 the authors outlined main and the most important implications of ICT development for organizations. As we can see there each of mechanisms mentioned in table 3 may have a considerable effect on the organization, so modern managers must take into consideration all of them and decide if they may use them to their company advantage. In most cases it seems useful to use all the changes described above, because then the competitive advantage over other companies will be the biggest and long lasting. It must not be forgotten that ICT implementation within the company influences the system of human management methods which in this case must be adjusted correctly.
Summary
Contemporary organizations are forced to search for modern forms of operating in order to improve their competitiveness. There is a series of phenomena that cause a need to make changes. The most important are the processes of globalization and computerization, as well as growing significance of the service sector in economy with growing importance of knowledge, experience, and skills.
Contemporary organization structures with a virtual network character base on the process approach, which eliminates unnecessary actions, rising organization efficiency and effectiveness. The base of these organizations activities are recognized customers’ needs both on micro and macro level. Using key factors of success as a base to create a modern structure also supports efficiency.
Changes presented above require a modern approach to human resources. Nowadays, commonly used concept is a knowledge worker, who has characteristics indispensable to move in navigation tunnels. Working out human resources with desired characteristics requires time and a complex approach from people who manage an organization. This shows that a long-term strategic approach is necessary if an organization wants to achieve competitive advantage, that arise due to the improvements presented above.
