The Intelligent Organisation

The Intelligent Organisation offers a radical model of organisation based on the integration of structure, individuals and information. In this game-changing book, leading consultant John Beckford proposes a different way of designing organisations in order to transform their performance and capitalise on the potential offered by contemporary information capability. This book demonstrates how an organisation designed backwards from its customers provides optimised autonomy for individuals and integrated, coherent information. Drawing on ideas from management science, business information management, organisation theory and extensive professional practice, Beckford argues that organisations have not evolved to process and derive meaning from exponentially increasing availability of data, and that the use of data for optimum performance requires fundamental organisational changes, not incremental improvement. Beckford demonstrates how to effect these changes in real practice and the positive results these changes can yield, as well as the challenges in implementation and how to work around them.Beckford's style is lively and direct, but his arguments are academically rigorous, striking a persuasive balance between accessibility and authority. The text is supported by case studies throughout and a dedicated website, www.intelligentorganisation.com, with support materials for lecturers. The Intelligent Organisation will be of significance to Masters and Undergraduate students reading Business Studies, Information Systems, Business Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Management and Management Science.

The Intelligent Organisation proposes a radically different way of designing organisations to capitalise on the potential offered by contemporary information capability. Intelligent Organisations, designed backwards from their customers, recognise information as their key source of competitive advantage. An Intelligent Organisation uses information to drive learning and adaptation at the level of individuals, tasks, processes and the whole organisation, to deliver transformational changes in business performance. This fully updated 2nd edition explores how to enable this change through systemic reinvention. Drawing on proven organisational applications exploiting data, information and management science, and grounded in tested theory, this book is not about incremental improvement, but about fundamentally rethinking the whole. Building on the first edition, two chapters have been added to apply the ideas of the Intelligent Organisation to the individual as well as to the nation. Further discussion on the current issues around technology and ethics have been incorporated, as well as review questions and improved pedagogy. The text contains updated case studies throughout, and is accompanied by a dedicated website, , with support materials for lecturers. Uniquely bridging the gap between information systems and organisational behaviour, The Intelligent Organisation will be of particular significance to Masters and Undergraduate students of Information Systems, Knowledge Management and Organisational Theory.