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Informatics |Информатика
LESSON 9
Read the text: MANAGING IN A WORLD OUT OF CONTROL
The Internet may be the closest thing to a working anarchy the world has ever seen. Nobody owns it, nobody runs it, and most of its half-billion or so citizens get along by dint of online etiquette, not rules and regulations. Etiquette, however, has not prevented some users from copping names generally associated with others. The coppers may be pretenders, competitors, speculators hoping that the name might one day be worth something, or just pranksters. Some legal battles for names involve Kaplan Educational Center, which found its name had been taken by its chief competitor, Princeton Review; MCI, whose name was registered by its rival, Sprint; and MTV, which was beaten to that name registration by a former employee.
Internet has been built up without any central control because the U.S. Defense Department wanted to ensure it could survive a nuclear attack. The Net has proved to be a paragon of hothouse expansion and constant evolution. Though it may be messier and less efficient than a similar system designed and run by an agency or company, this organically grown network is also more adaptable and less susceptible to a systemwide crash.
The consequences for management in a world out of control, such as Internet, are discussed in a book by Kevin Kelly titled Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization. Among the points made in a review of the book is a recipe developed at MIT for devising a system of distributed control: (1) do simple things first, (2) learn to do them flawlessly, (3) add new layers of activity over the results of the simple task, (4) don’t change the simple things, (5) make the new layer work as flawlessly as the simple one, and (6) repeat ad infinitum. Many organizations would benefit by adopting organizing principles as deceptively simple as these.
Increasingly, the most successful companies, like the machines and programs so many of them now make, and the networks on which they all will rely will advance only by evolving and adapting in this organic, bottom-up way. Successful leaders will have to relinquish control. They will have to honor error because a breakthrough may at first be indistinguishable from a mistake. They must constantly seek disequilibrium.
We have spoken of control within the IC family of parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, and joint ventures. This deals with where decisions are made on a variety of subjects under different circumstances. Timely and accurate reporting to the parent is necessary for success of the IC family. The trend in this area of control toward centralized decision making, with more being done by the parent.
The other control of which we have spoken involves the design, production, and order-filling functions of companies. Here the explosion of software, computer networks, and information technology, including the Internet, has tended to decentralize and de-job organizations. More and more, workers do evolving tasks with changing teams of other workers. Hierarchies dissolve and successful leaders relinquish control as workers are trained and encouraged to cope with evolving tasks and rewarded for coping well.
1. Match the left part with the right:
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1. The Internet may be the closest thing to |
a) involves the design, production, and order-filling functions of companies. |
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2. The other control of which we have spoken |
b) will advance only by evolving and adapting in this organic, bottom-up way. |
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3. The most successful companies |
c) to relinquish control. |
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4. Successful leaders will have |
d) a working anarchy the world has ever seen. |
2. Complete the sentences with the suggested words: constant, built up, paragon, ensure
Internet has been ______ without any central control because the U.S. Defense Department wanted to ______ it could survive a nuclear attack. The Net has proved to be a ______ of hothouse expansion and _______ evolution.