Building the Flexible Firm

How to Remain Competitive
Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-19-829595-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 374 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 569 g

How do firms cope with changing environments? Is flexibility really the solution? How can we measure a firm's flexibility? Can a more flexible firm be created?

Based on an Igor Ansoff Award-winning study and now available for the first time in paperback, Henk Volberda's Building the Flexible Firm shows how flexibility has become the new strategic challenge for contemporary firms. Although traditional organizational forms have worked well in the relatively stable environments of the past, the globalization of markets, rapid technological change, shortening product life cycles, and increasing aggressiveness of competitors have radically altered the ground rules for competing in the 1990s and beyond. Increased competition forces firms to move more quickly and boldly than before, and to experiment in ways that do not conform to traditional administrative theory.

This book offers a wealth of insights into the way firms can increase their flexibility. It is based on extensive interviews with practitioners and supported by many longitudinal case studies on flexibility improvement within large corporations. The author provides a strategic framework which explains what types of flexibility are effective under different organizational conditions and environmental characteristics. He also demonstrates an integrated method for diagnosing a firm's flexibility and for guiding the transition to greater flexibility and responsiveness.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Volberda, Henk W.

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Literatur für Manager
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensführung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensorganisation & Entwicklungsstrategien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: Introduction

- 2: A Revision of Management and Organization

- 3: Flexibibity, the Hallmark of Postmodern Organization

- 4: Grasping the Paradox of Flexibility

- 5: The Managerial Task: Creating Flexible Capabilities

- 6: The Organization Design Task: Reducing Organizational Barriers

- 7: Resolving the Paradox: Flexibility under Various Levels of Competition

- 8: Towards the Flexible Form

- 9: How to Improve the Firm's Flexibility: Tools and Techniques

- 10: Discovering Flexible Corporations of the Future: Managerial and Theoretical Implications

- References

- Appendices

Über Autor(innen)

Henk W. Volberda is codirector of the Erasmus Strategic Renewal Program and secretary of the Dutch-Flemish Academy of Management. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Organization Science (USA).