Charles Handy article on the importance of maintaining applied intelligence in an organization to remain competitive. Handy begins the article stating how people should take nothing for granted, and how the rules of economics will certainly not remain constant. He proceeds to note how competition in today’s society requires employee productivity to improve at five to ten percent per annum, and recognizes that no developed country can maintain overall growth rates that are that high. The consequence is that capitalist societies are getting rid of jobs faster than they can be replaced, and that the new employee business formula, where half as many people, being paid twice as well, producing three times as much, has also extended to and affected government labor operations. Handy then argues that, if people would turn themselves into portfolio people, they would have work available to them, with a portfolio of clients and products. This view is in line with his observation that the new source of wealth today is not traditional property but intelligence, specifically applied intelligence, and how important it is to train citizens to become skilled in order to meet the demands of an increasingly up-skilled society. Handy closes the article stating that, in order to hold on to the best people as intellectual capital, organizations will have to make them quasi-partners in the enterprise, offering them large bonus schemes, share schemes, and some rights of ownership. Likewise, it will be necessary to reform company law by imposing restrictions on the financiers’ power and influence over corporate affairs.
Handy, Charles B Italy Sheehy, Michael Earthquakes Gratitude Productivity Capitalism Capitalists and financiers Capital productivity Competition Intellectual capital Intellectual property Organizational change Organizational effectiveness Organizations Institute of Directors
Source
Charles Handy article on the importance of maintaining applied intelligence in an organization to remain competitive, 1994; Charles Handy Papers; Box 20, Folder 8; 1 page
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