Management's Role in Network-Centric Innovation

Speakers at next week's "Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations of the Future" conference, part of Harvard Business School's 100th anniversary celebration, will ask some thought-provoking questions about management's role in innovation. One question about the Internet's impact on collaboration stands out: Are management processes so out of sync with networked processes that they'll actually cripple collaborative creativity?

If management practices do hinder the potential for innovative collaboration, then Gary Hamel's vision of the future of management -- in which social technologies could absorb management altogether -- isn't so far-fetched. But since prevailing corporate culture doesn't exactly embrace collaboration, it seems unlikely that will happen on a mass scale any time in the near future. However, the work of management will have to adapt as the Web continues changing how businesses operate. Perhaps network-centric organizations will be better poised to harness the Web's collaborative potential than companies with hierarchical structures.

What's your take?

(Network image courtesy of Noah Sussman, cc 2.0)