Article by Charles Handy on how, with declining numbers of corporations, specialized, freelance employees with short and medium term contracts of employment will become increasingly common. Handy begins the article describing how he visited Silicon Valley, where a personnel director at a high-tech company conversed with Handy about a career center he established, which was set up to give confidential advice and counseling on career planning. Handy proceeds to note how it is too expensive to carry a large core of guaranteed careers in today’s fast changing world, and how people do best when they make their own career runnings, providing the example of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, which announced a major restructuring of its double-headed center and commitment to becoming a proper federation. In the federation arrangement, the company is guided by a small center, and loyalty is given to the individual business unit and to the project, rather than the whole. Handy then examines the work of two new books out of the U.S., which describe the current changes taking place as organizations reshape themselves according to federalism’s principles, and the consequences resulting from that change. He proceeds to make his own predictions for the future, stating how companies will increasingly be collections of medium-term projects that are coordinated by other medium-term project groups. The largest companies, he concludes, will be able to offer enough projects to maintain an active staff for most of their working lives.
Handy, Charles B Royal Dutch Shell plc Heckscher, Charles C., 1949- Bridges, William, 1933- Institute of Directors Federalism Federalism - theory & application Organizational change Organizational behavior Organization theory Organizational effectiveness Silicon Valley (Calif.)
Source
Article by Charles Handy on how, with declining numbers of corporations, specialized, free lance employees with short and medium term contracts of employment will become increasingly common, 1995; Charles Handy Papers; Box 20, Folder 9; 1 page
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