The T-Form Organization

While much has been written about networked organizations, virtual organizations, and similar "businesses of the future," Henry Lucas goes beyond mere description to show how managers can use information technology (IT), combined with conventional approaches to organization design, to create a technologically based "T-Form" organization.For executives, managers, and consultants involved in redesigning organizations and structures, this book presents conventional design variables developed by such noted organizational design and strategy experts as David Nadler, Jay Galbraith, Henry Mintzberg, and others, and compares these against new IT design variables such as virtual components, electronic customer/supplier relationships, production automation, electronic work flows, technological matrixing, and more. Each chapter discusses one or more IT design variable and presents concrete examples of organizations that have used these variables to change their structure and the way they do business, including American Airlines, Merrill Lynch, France Telecom, Frito Lay, Chase Manhattan Bank, the Internet, Harvard Business School, and many others. Topics covered include IT and strategy, electronic markets, reengineering processes, and using IT to change organization structure, operations, customer service, and the very nature of management.