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IT #2 Knowledge Economy

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#KnowledgeEconomy #KnowledgeAge #KnowledgeWorkers #Economy #SocialSystems #BoringBackground This article explains what knowledge economy is and provides the background info necessary for that explanation. Preface In 1959 “the father of American corporate management” Peter F. Drucker introduced a term “knowledge workers” in his book “The Landmarks of Tomorrow”. Basically, he noticed that since the World War II, we’ve got a lot of workers who could not be managed in the old, Industrial Age, ways. “Scientific Method” of Taylor1 simply did not work anymore with these workers. And the suggestion was to manage them differently. Later a lot of other people contributed to how it could be done, and it’s still very much work in progress. Adding to that statement, it’s fairly clear why it did not work. Tailor’s method was to split a complicated process, like creation of optical lenses or arsenal workers. With knowledge workers splitting work into tiny steps on one project did not work, because on

IT#14 Economy of Complexity

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The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) is a United States federal law enacted in 1980 designed to reduce the total amount of paperwork burden the federal government imposes on private businesses and citizens. United States Federal Law enacted by the 96th United States Congress. Effective December 11, 1980. #ITManagement #Management #Economy #ParasiticLoops #Complexity #TechnicalDebt This article explains the phenomenon of Economy of Complexity, its kinds and when does it become really bad. What is Economy of Complexity? What is this, Economy of Complexity? To make it short, the economy of complexity appears when a significant cost for a customer comes not from the materials and labor costs, but rather from the artificially raised beyond measure complexity of the process, service or a product . The classic example of the economy of complexity is bureaucracy. Imagine that you live a couple of centuries earlier than our time and come to some small European city to an insignificant city clerk w

IT#10 Office Evolution and Unnatural Selection

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#KnowledgeEconomy #DiscoveryEconomy #ITManagement #Management #SocialNetworkEffects #UniversalEvolution This article explains why any knowledge economy company represents an evolutionary environment, why this is important, and how it works with the factors which affect the market fit of your company. The topic is most likely of interest for managers or CEOs. This is done using a computer simulation model. Really? Office Evolution? Yes. Check other articles on this site. There is a theory of universal evolution which applies generic principles of evolution to non-biological systems. It says that you have evolutionary environment whenever you have: A limited pool of resources, e.g. an ecological niche, audience or salary fund. A number of entities that compete for this pool of resources. Eventual demise and reproduction of these entities with sort of inheritance and mutations. A typical business satisfies all these conditions. It has: A limited salary and bonus fund. Employees compete fo

IT#5 Corporate Parasites

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#ITManagement #Management #UniversalEvolution #Parasites #CorporateParasites This article explains certain types of harmful employee behavior (especially those in the management positions) from the POV of the universal evolution theory and parasitic relationships. It also explores when such behavior is avoidable and how. What is the universal evolution theory and why is it applicable to business? The universal evolution theory states that most evolutionary phenomena we observe in the biological evolution are applicable in any system where we have: A limited pool of resources. A number of competing entities consuming and fighting for those resources. A kind of replication that keeps some similarity and some mutation from generation to generation. Just these three conditions. If they are satisfied, you get an evolutionary environment. In the biological evolution these are (1) an ecological niche, (2) the organisms (e.g. animals) that live inside it and compete with each other, and (3) pr