Whatever happened to the organization man?

When William H. Whyte Jr. wrote "The Organization Man" in 1956, corporate governance organizations were quite simple. They were hierarchical structures with clear-cut reporting lines and definite career paths. Everyone knew who the boss was. When the CEO retired, someone on the plant floor or in the mail-room was promoted. Paper flowed up and down the chain of command. Things were clear, slow, and costly.

Mr. Whyte's organization man would hardly recognize his old corporation today. Everything has changed, but nowhere has the change been more pronounced and radical than in organizational structure.

A catalyst for this radical change has been time. Businessmen have found that time is money. When you speed up the process--whether it is product development, paper flow, collections, or decision making--you end up with fewer people, less inventory, and faster cash flow.

The instruments of speed have become essential components of the managerial scene--fax machine, lap-top computer, word processor, cellular phone, jet plane, express mail, E-mail, phone mail, teleconference, and computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing.

At the same time, we have witnessed the emergence of participative management--also known as empowerment, involvement, or delegation. The "new manager" utilizes quality circles, project teams, task forces, and work groups in a way that was unheard of and impossible in hierarchical days.

When you add a complete global network of subsidiaries, affiliates, joint ventures, and licensees to the structure, well, it's enough to make an old organization planner and chart drawer implode. In fact, that is exactly what happens as he is faced with boundaryless definitions, horizontal charts, and re-engineered relationships.

Consultants have risen to the challenge. They have responded with sprightly labeled new approaches to running a tighter ship with fewer people and a flatter organization chart. Sometimes they call it re-engineering, right-sizing, management-by-walking-around, process-mapping, or any of a number of catchy phrases.

What does all this lead to? Are we turning toward the Japanese style of consensus management? Is the hierarchical chart dead? Is The Boss going to be just a coordinator?

Not by a long shot. But the principles of management and the techniques of managing certainly are changing.

What will the future bring? Some probable developments include:

* The corporate staff as we know it, hamstrung by myriad vice presidents and staff specialists, will disappear. No company can afford that cost and clutter.

* The number of people between the CEO and the lowest-level decision maker in the corporation will continue to shrink. In some companies, it is already down to three or four levels.

* The number of direct reports a supervisor can handle effectively used to be limited to six or seven. That figure will rise to 25 or more.

* Career paths will become more and more obscure as people move up and through the organization in new ways and on new tracks. Recruiting will intensify as companies seek executives from other organizations who have learned how to operate the new systems. And more senior executives of American companies will come from foreign affiliates.

* The unrest and volatility in the corporate world is not even remotely over. The number of new approaches and new ideas will multiply and become more complicated. Hold onto your hat!

* Not all chief executives buy into the new organizational theories with anything more than lip service. Plenty of tough old geezers aren't planning to change their "I am the boss" stance. A few will have the power to pull it off; the others risk losing out to more innovative competitors and, in some instances, risk losing their jobs.

Certainly, there is no one right way to accomplish this managerial transformation. Some younger CEOs think they already are operating in the "new-management" way. Some older CEOs are thrashing away with small armies of consultants, laying off thousands of workers, and trying like mad to play catch-up.

How it all will turn out remains to be seen. The only things we know for sure are that business will be different, it will be exciting, and some companies and CEOs will do it better than others. Your shareholders will be waiting eagerly to see how you fare.

Formerly the CEO of F.&M. Schaefer (1972-1977), Robert W. Lear is chairman of CE's advisory board. He also teaches at Columbia Business School, where he is Executive-in-Residence. He is an independent general partner of Equitable Capital Partners and holds directorships with Cambrex Corporation Inc.; Scudder Institutional Funds; Korea Fund; and Welsh, Carson, Anderson, Stow Venture Capital Co.