Article by Charles Handy on the nature of fleas and elephants to the evolution of organizations. Handy begins the article defining the terms flea and elephant for readers, defining elephants as large organizations in business and government, and fleas as the smaller businesses, such as family-run stores, hairdressing salons, real estate agencies, non-profits, and schools and churches. Handy indicates that, although fleas are academically studied more, innovation and new jobs must come from fleas, as they provide the new challenges for society. He proceeds to examine the relationships between fleas and elephants in several different world contexts, highlighting the problem of why most fleas in the UK and Australia seem uninterested in becoming the leaders of global elephants, before moving on to discuss how fleas can thrive in elephants through the concept of federalism and its mixture of centralization and decentralization. He closes the article discussing how fleas can be cultivated and encouraged in education systems.
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