Command & Control in the Multidimensional Organization

Chandler’s dictum ‘structure follows strategy… but the market is the common denominator’ during the twentieth century was answered effectively by the one-dimensional multi-divisional organization, both in business as in government. Today’s markets have a dynamic multidimensionality; customers having multiple preferences, dependent on time, day of the week, context of activities, and having a choice of information and distribution channels. To be in-control in such market requires multi-dimensional management accounting systems. Resources have changed from physical to uncodified personal knowledge and resourcefulness. With that the basis of motivation of workers is changing from being position oriented to contribution oriented. The resource allocation process has to give way to resource mobilization. A number of firms effectively have answered this complexity by adopting a multidimensional organization. The paper explains how these firms are effective and by what social, administrative, and technical measures they have transformed traditional ideas about amongst others authority, control, management and rewards, to create organizations which proof to be effective in dynamic complex environments. Consequences for qualifications of executives and managers are discussed. The paper also discusses why the fundamental transformation these firms have accomplished implies a change in the paradigms of management of change and of organization design