Adhocracy - a form of organisation that is fluid and adaptable, and is defined by a lack of structure. From the root ad hoc which implies something temporary, specialised and dynamic. People from varied backgrounds work together on a specific task force/committee that is formed for a particular task, and once the task is complete they disband, and will possibly create new groups with other people in the organisation for new tasks that arise.
"Adhocracy is characterized by an adaptive, creative and flexible integrative behavior based on non-permanence and spontaneity. It is believed that these characteristics allow adhocracy to respond faster than traditional bureaucratic organizations while being more open to new ideas" (source)
Types of adhocracy
- task force: a temporary structure formed to accomplish a specific, well defined task that involves a number of organisational sub units, which disbands once the task is complete.
- committee form: a committee facilitates bringing together many varied inputs including task forces, is established to oversee critical functions. used to bring perspectives from throughout the organisation into 'top level' decision making. (it almost seems like it still is part of a normal hierarchical structure..)
- source
New companies/organisations in the industries wanting to foster entrepreneurship and creativity, and a creative vision for the future. For businesses that are innovative and need to adapt to the ever changing market and culture. These organisations want new structures within the organisations, emphasising "organized anarchy, and disciplined imagination [to] create high levels of unique forms of collaboration."
"They have been characterized as “tents rather than palaces” in that they can reconfigure themselves rapidly when new opportunity (or alarming challenges); perhaps greater, unique prospects arise. A major goal of an adhocracy is to foster adaptability, flexibility, and creativity. It is not uncommon for uncertainty, ambiguity, and information overload to occur."
An example of an adhocracy: the Apollo 13 space mission. Leadership changed regularly and often unpredictably, and there was no clear structure of the communication or control system.
During the flight, both the astronauts in the space capsule and those on earth supporting them were not organised in a static way. Different problems required different types of people and teams, and different leadership. This structural form allowed teams of experts to function effectually and collaborate effectively with other teams. Decentralising certain decision making allowed them to master highly complex projects.
NASA's entire Manned Space Flight Centre is an adhocracy: the formal structure changed 17 times in its first eight years. Printing any charts recording the organisatonal structure was impossible because they changed so rapidly. Lines between jurisdictions, precedents and policies were temporary, and titles/job responsibilities/department alignments often changed weekly. In order for it to work they had to have very detailed checklists and manuals for every possible situation - even for decision making itself - for everyone to follow, because there was no set leadership.
(source)
Some other companies with adhocracy cultures are Google, IDEO, Genentech, Menlo Innovation..
"While the design has experienced some growing pains transitioning away from decades of a bureaucratic tradition, the results are very promising thus far and have resulted in more timely actions in relation to non-emergent situations, greater responsiveness to citizens, organizational success, better decision-making, and leadership development of personnel within the organization who in turn are capable of accepting roles with a greater scope of responsibility." (source)
(from the PDF given to us: Bennis proposed that in our changing world we would need to develop “new temporary systems, formed to work on problems.” These systems would allow us “to focus on things like peace, traffic, or what have you, and to develop these task-force temporary systems…”. Most interesting is that these systems are fluid and dynamic: “When the problem seems to get less interesting, less potent, less salient, and possibly even solved, the members of the team, this temporary system, dissolve and return to their own departments, or form new teams.” These temporary systems don’t attempt to know everything in advance and prepare for any possible outcome with rigid and risk-averse processes, but rather can help us to “adapt to changing conditions” and “remain responsive to what is going on out there” (Bennis, 1969))
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Waste Streams research:
A big report about wellington waste here;
The main materials going into landfills are: organics (28%), timber (13%), paper (11%) and plastics (10%).
Some organisations that reuse food waste: kai-to-compost (for businesses), Kaibosh (delivering surplus food to those in need), Kai Cycle (food scrap collection service, goes towards compost for community garden).
Sustainability trust has a variety of resources to do with waste streams and reusing things, like a curtain donation bank, electronics recycling, lots of resources about reducing waste.
The misprint co making notebooks by reusing paper - if we want to do something with paper there's heaps of paper around massey
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