The Future of Management: Where is Gary Hamel Leading Us?

In his new book, The Future of Management, Gary Hamel is once again inciting managers to revolt. His indictment of current management practices rests on two propositions. First, that most management systems and principles are founded on a hopelessly obsolete management paradigm. Second, that management innovation represents the ultimate source of competitive advantage. Despite his infectious enthusiasm for discontinuous change, Hamel's thesis is far from convincing. While he is surely right that changes in the business environment and new technologies will drive far-reaching changes in structures, systems and leadership styles, it is not evident that these adaptations require a new management paradigm. Nor is it obvious that 21st century management will be based upon distributed innovation, participative decision making and market-based mechanisms. This article argues that the future of management is more likely to involve the extension of existing management principles and practices to embrace higher levels of complexity – particularly multidimensional integration – accompanied by greater reliance upon informal structures and systems, including self-organization. These changes imply different leadership styles and approaches to decision making, but not – as Hamel advocates – the wholesale dismantling of existing management practices or the principles that underpin them.