Element contents
The Post-Managerial Era of Capitalism
Organizational Design as the Next Innovation Frontier
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2025
Summary
Traditional business management was the machinery of control for industrial organizations that had sprawled beyond the oversight of their founders, an organizational innovation that became a profession and a science. The aim was the stability and predictability the financial sector demanded. But control brought increasing costs: (1) slow response to market changes, leaving established firms behind innovative newcomers; (2) bureaucratic inertia that strangled flexibility; (3) disengaged employees who felt their creativity and agility stifled. These failures weakened firms and lowered economic productivity. In the Kuhnian framework of scientific revolutions, the management paradigm entered crisis mode. Consistent with the Kuhnian framing, businesses are moving beyond management. Self-organization and enterprise flow are revolutionizing business models. Interconnected ecosystems replace bounded industries. Experimentation and feedback replace traditional strategic planning. Dynamic, autonomous teams replace hierarchies of authority. Liberated companies embrace dynamic cohesion rather than the rigidities of business administration. They operate in a post-managerial era.
Information
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781009608084Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 08 January 2026
References
Alexander, C. (1980). The Nature of Order. Berkeley, CA: The Center for Environmental Structure.Google Scholar
Alexander, C. (2020). The Nature of Order, Book 2. Berkeley, CA: The Center for Environmental Structure.Google Scholar
Arora, K. (2023). The Gaming Industry: A Behemoth with Unprecedented Global Reach. Forbes.com, November 17.Google Scholar
Axelrod, R., & Cohen, M. D. (2000). Harnessing complexity: Organizational implications of a scientific frontier. New York, NY: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Bejan, A. (2008). Design with Constructal Theory. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Molecular Science.10.1002/9780470432709CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bejan, A. (2020). Freedom and Evolution: Hierarchy in Nature, Society and Science. Cham: Springer.10.1007/978-3-030-34009-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennis, W. (2003). Thoughts on “The Essentials of Leadership.” In ed. Graham, P., Prophet of Management: A Celebration (pp. 177–181). Washington, DC: Beard Books.Google Scholar
Béliczky, M. (2025, January 14). Adapting for success: The organizational shift every 21st century business needs. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/adapting-success-organizational-shift-every-21st-century-b%25C3%25A9liczky-i4phe/?trackingId=PKtbXOVZTeq%2BdyXLa18x2Q%3D%3D.Google Scholar
Boettke, P. J., Caceres, W. Z., & Martin, A. G. (2013). Error is obvious, coordination is the puzzle. In Frantz, R. & Leeson, R. (Eds.), Hayek and behavioral economics (pp. 90–110). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137278159_5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bylund, P. L., & Packard, M. D. (2022). Back to the future: Can counterhistory accelerate theoretical advancement in management? Journal of Management Inquiry, 31(2), 139–146. https://doi.org/10.1177/10564926211007086.Google Scholar
Carlson, C. R. (2006). Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want. New York: Crown Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Cilliers, P. (1998). Complexity and postmodernism: Understanding complex systems. London, England: Routledge.Google Scholar
Collier, J. (2004). Self-organization, individuation and identity. Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 58(2), 151–172.10.3917/rip.228.0151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, Clayton M. (1997). The innovator’s dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2003). Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning. New York: Penguin Group.Google Scholar
Davis, T., & Higgins, J. (2013). A Blockbuster failure: How an outdated business model destroyed a giant. Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies, 11. Retrieved from https://ir.law.utk.edu/utk_studlawbankruptcy/11.Google Scholar
Fernandez-Araoz, C. (2020). Jack Welch’s Approach to Leadership. Harvard Business Review, March 3.Google Scholar
Fischer, B., Lago, U., & Lui, F. (2013). Reinventing Giants: How Chinese Global Competitor Haier Has Changed the Way Big Companies Transform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Freire, L. (2018). Constructal Law of Institutions within Social Organizations. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 8 (3), 103–125.10.4236/ojapps.2018.83009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fruin, W. M. (1992). The Japanese Enterprise System. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Getz, I. (2009). Liberating Leadership: How the Initiative-Freeing Radical Organizational Form Has Been Successfully Adopted. California Management Review, 51, 32–58.10.2307/41166504CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, P., Raulet-Croset, N., & Teglborg, A.-C. (2021). FAVI: A Managerial Innovation Built on Humanist Values. In ed. von Kimakowitz, E., Humanistic Management in Practice (pp. 171–185). Heidelberg: Springer Nature.10.1007/978-3-030-51545-4_9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, P., Teglborg, A.-C., & Raulet-Croset, N. (2018). The Liberated Firm, a Radical Innovation or a Mere Avatar of Participatory Management? Paris: Gerer Et Comprendre.Google Scholar
Gordon, D. (2025, May 14). He revolutionized travel. Can Airbnb’s founder redesign your entire life? The Wall Street Journal Magazine. https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-redesigning-travel-and-life-3e0b9e0b.Google Scholar
Graham, P. (2024, September). Founder mode. Paul Graham. http://www.paulgraham.com/foundermode.html.Google Scholar
Gray, B., & Sarnak, D. O. (2015). Home Care by Self-Governing Teams: The Netherlands’ Buurtzorg Model. New York: Commonwealth Fund.Google Scholar
Greeven, M. J., Xin, K., & Yip, G. S. (2023). How Chinese Companies Are Reinventing Management. Harvard Business Review, March–April.Google Scholar
Guerra, C., Capitelli, M., & Longo, S. (2012). The role of paradigms in science: A historical perspective. In L’Abate, L. (Ed.), Paradigms in Theory Construction (pp. 19–30). New York, NY: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0914-4_2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, I. (2012). Introductory Essay. In Kuhn, T. S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (50th Anniversary ed., pp. vii–xxxvii). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Harter, J. & Pendell, R. (2025). “Global Engagement Falls for the Second Time Since 2009.” Gallup, April 22, 2025. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/659279/global-engagement-falls-second-time-2009.aspx.Google Scholar
Hastings, H. (2022, June 7). Customer value is all that matters in business. Hunter Hastings. https://hunterhastings.com/customer-value-is-all-that-matters-in-business/.Google Scholar
Handu’s Journey to Success. (2024). Who Knows China, October, whoknowschina.com/case-study/handu-journey-to-success/.Google Scholar
Hastings, H. (2024a). Digital Enablement: Customer-led Business, Subjective Value and Empathy, September 20. https://hunterhastings.substack.com.Google Scholar
Hastings, H. a. (2024b). Aberrant Capitalism: The Decay and Revival of Customer Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1948). Individualism and economic order. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hillix, W. A., & L’Abate, L. (2012). The role of paradigms in science and theory construction. In L’Abate, L. (Ed.), Paradigms in Theory Construction (pp. 3–16). New York, NY: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0914-4_1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, M. C. (1998). Foundations of Organizational Strategy. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Juarrero, A. (2023). Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence. Cambridge: The MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/14630.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanter, R. M. (2018). Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.Google Scholar
Kaplan, R. S. (1996). The Balanced Scorecard. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.Google Scholar
Keltner, D. (2016). The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence. New York: Penguin Random House.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, D. (2018). Keynote: Managing Complexity with Simplicity. Agile People Conference. Stockholm: YouTube, October 25.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, D. (2024a). CEO, Dartagnan Advisors. (H. Hastings, Interviewer), August 26.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, D. (2024b). Watch Your Language: The Hidden Power of Words in the Workplace, September 29. www.corporate-rebels.com/blog/watch-your-language-hidden-powerwords-workplace?utm_source=social&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=cr.Google Scholar
KPMG. (2015). The Added Value of Buurtzorg Relative to Other Providers of Home Care. Netherlands.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, N. D. (2024). The Atomic Human: What Makes Us Unique in the Age of AI. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Lindkvist, L., Bengtsson, M., & Kärreman, D. (2024). The liberated firm: An integrative approach to a new trend in organizing. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 40(2), Article 101330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2024.101330.Google Scholar
Madden, B. J. (2020). Value Creation Principles: The Pragmatic Theory of the Firm Begins with Purpose and Ends with Sustainable Capitalism. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Madden, B. J. (2024). My Value Creation Journey. Naples, FL: Bartley J. Madden Foundation.Google Scholar
Maddux, W. W., Swaab, R. I., Tanure, B., & Williams, E. (2014). Ricardo Semler: A revolutionary model of leadership (Case No. INS517). Fontainebleau, France: INSEAD.Google Scholar
McCaffrey, M. (2021). The Invisible Hand in Virtual Worlds: The Economic Order of Video Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108884891CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGilchrist, I. (2019). The Master and His Emissary. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McGilchrist, I. (2021). The matter with things: Our brains, our delusions, and the unmaking of the world. London, England: Perspectiva Press.Google Scholar
Minnaar, J. (2016). Corporate Rebels, November 14. Retrieved from Morning Star’s Success Story: No Bosses, No Titles, No Structural Hierarchy: www.corporate-rebels.com/blog/morning-star.Google Scholar
Nascimento, L. d. (2021). Dynamic Interactions Among Knowledge Management, Strategic Foresight, and Emerging Technologies. Journal of Knowledge Management, 275–297, 25 (2), 278.10.1108/JKM-01-2020-0044CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oo, K. K., & Rakthin, S. (2022). Integrative review of absorptive capacity’s role in fostering organizational resilience and research agenda. Sustainability, 14(19), 12570. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912570.Google Scholar
Packard, M. D. (2022). Entrepreneurial Valuation: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting into the Mind of Customers. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110750805CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pendleton-Jullian, A. M., & Seely Brown, J. (2018). Design unbound: Designing for emergence in a white water world (Vols. 1–2). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/10592.003.0004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puranam, P. (2025). Seeking self-organization in self-governing systems: Are we looking in the wrong place? Journal of Organization Design, 14(2), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-024-00183-z.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, R. (1993). The prosperous community: Social capital and public life. The American Prospect, 4 (13), 35–42.Google Scholar
Roy, N. (2023). How Discord Helps Build Brand Communities. American Marketer, January 23.Google Scholar
Schrager, James E. (2019). Three Strategy Lessons From GE’s Decline. Chicago Booth Review.Google Scholar
Steiber, A., & Alänge, S. (2024). The Silicon Valley Model: Management for entrepreneurship (2nd ed.). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48405-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, F. W. (1911). Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper and Brother.Google Scholar
Tushman, M. L., & O’Reilly, C. A., III. (2013). Organizational ambidexterity: Past, present, and future. Academy of Management Perspectives, 27(4), 324–338. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2013.0025.Google Scholar
Turner, J. R. (2020). The Flow System. Denton, TX: UNT Libraries.10.4018/978-1-7998-3673-5.ch014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uzuegbu, C. N. (2015). Henri Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management. Journal of Information Theory and Practice, 3 (2), 58–72.10.1633/JISTaP.2015.3.2.5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, G. (2017). Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies. New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Witman, Paul D. What Gets Measured, Gets Managed: The Wells Fargo Account Opening Scandal. Journal of Information Systems Education 29, no. 3 (2018): 131–38. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol29/iss3/2.Google Scholar
Wong, M. L., Cleland, C. E., Arend, D. Jr., Bartlett, S., Cleaves, H. J. II, Demarest, H., Prabhu, A., Lunine, J. I., & Hazen, R. M. (2023). On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(43), Article e2310223120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310223120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wren, D. A., Bedeian, A. G., & Breeze, J. D. (2002). The foundations of Henri Fayol’s administrative theory. Management Decision, 40(9), 906–918. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740210441108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yong, A. (2025, January 26). Interview with DeepSeek founder: We’re done following. It’s time to lead. The China Academy. https://thechinaacademy.org/interview-with-deepseek-founder-were-done-following-its-time-to-lead/.Google Scholar
Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
The HTML of this Element
complies with version 2.1 of the
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG), covering newer accessibility requirements and improved
user experiences and achieves the intermediate
(AA)
level of WCAG compliance, covering a wider range of accessibility requirements.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Visual Accessibility
Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.