As companies reorganize in response to technology, specialized knowledge is distributed down from the few at the top to the many in the middle, and the shape of organizations changes to a flatter structure. Colin Campbell describes the hierarchical structure of older traditional organizations:

Each function of a company, marketing, finance, accounting, information services, production, or purchasing, had its own
department, ruled by a manager to whom other managers reported, and other managers with less authority and responsibility reported to this second level of management. The various departments within the company operated as independent units with their own agendas, often failing to share information effectively. Often, they even acted as though they were rivals (1994, p. 18).

As long as markets were stable, the hierarchical corporation could prosper. But the increased competition of globalization, with its demand for quick responses requires that firms change their structure.

Less hierarchical and less rule-bound corporate structures mean a major adjustment in how workers work. shift to a more team-based work environment is just one example.

Re-engineering According to Michael Hammer, author of Re-engineering the Corporation, as explained in Bridges (1994), re-engineering is a radical redesign of business processes for dramatic improvement. Re-engineering helps organizations become more efficient and serve the customer better. William Bridges uses an example of re-engineering from IBM: The Credit Department at IBM is responsible for providing customers with financing for IBM products. Typically, requests for financing took 6-14 days. All too often a competitor approved a credit request more quickly and IBM lost a sale. An analysis of the credit process at IBM showed that performing the actual work took only 90 minutes. The remaining six or more days were consumed by handing the form off from one department to the next. (1994, p. 23) As a result of this analysis, the whole work process was redesigned; the task is now done, beginning to end, by a single employee, instead of sequentially by multiple specialists. Re-engineering allowed IBM's credit department to reduce its six-day turnaround to four hours and achieve a small work force reduction. Although staff reduction is a usual outcome of re-engineering, that is not its primary purpose. Saving time is at least as important.

The Team Based Workplace

Workers in firms and institutions that have been re-engineered to a less hierarchical structure are increasingly working in teams because, as Colin Campbell states, teams are responsive, adaptable, require less supervision, and generally work better in a business environment of constant change (1994, p. 20).

With innovations in information technology allowing everyone on a team to access information, companies can now move to more team-based workplaces. The resulting flattened corporation means middle managers who passed down orders and passed up information are quickly disappearing. In fact, the 1991-1992 recession has been called the Yuppie Recession for the devastating effect it had on the ranks of middle management. When flattened, less rigid, less hierarchical companies do hire managers, they look for managers who can act as coaches. Intimidation-style management is detrimental to the new team-focused environment. This, in turn, means that managers have high expectations for workers to be flexible and have the attitudes and behaviours necessary for working in teams.

Contracting Out

Another organizational strategy used to increase productivity is contracting out or outsourcing, where every job and function in a firm or institution is examined to see if it would make more sense to contract it out to some external company or individual. Tasks that have little to do with the primary business of the company are typically outsourced, usually at a lower cost than it would take the organization to do the job itself. This allows the firm or institution to focus on what it does best.

Outsourcing changes the terms of employment for professional as well as for lower-skilled workers. Many of these people are hired on contract and paid only for work performed, not for time spent on the job. This has an impact on work at every wage level and, generally, employers take less responsibility for the long-term security of their employees.

The Focus on Customer Service

Increased competition has also forced organizations to put more emphasis on customer service. The rigid hierarchical corporate structure where upper management, rather than front-line employees made decisions, created distance between the company and the customers buying its products and services. Organizations must now listen to what customers want and give it to them cheaply and efficiently because, if they don't, someone else will.

What competition has made necessary, technology makes possible. By taking care of ordering, accounting, processing and communication tasks, information technology has freed the corporation to concentrate on the customer. Computerization of these tasks frees up personnel for sales and marketing, the profit generating sides of the business.

Corporations also realize that paying more attention to what their customers are saying requires giving more power to front-line employees who deal directly with customers. gain, technology makes it possible to give those front-line employees more information, flexibility and control so they can make decisions and solve problems.

Implications of the Reorganization of Firms and Institutions

Colin Campbell (1994) offers the following suggestions to job seekers:

• Seek out companies that outsource all but their core area of expertise since those companies have the brightest competitive future and offer a greater chance for promotion. Don't get stuck in a department that is likely to be outsourced.
• On the flip side, with larger companies outsourcing, many jobs will emerge in small companies that provide services such as maintenance, marketing, computer systems control and consulting in a wide range of fields. Collectively, these companies are known as business services.
• The emphasis on customer service is good news for people whose main strength is marketing and who may be wondering where they fit into a high-tech future. High-tech companies report special difficulty in recruiting technically competent people who also have marketing or sales abilities. And sales/marketing experience is often the fastest route to senior management.
• Look for employment in companies with close-knit teams that have committed management support.