A Distributed Future: Where Blockchain Technology Meets Organisation Design and Decision-making
Blockchain technology records and forever maintains data that cannot be changed. It also involves ‘smart contracts’ and consensus mechanisms that govern processes of automation, as well as the development, evaluation and execution of decisions. Blockchain technology has the potential to transform organisation design due to its decentralised and distributed characteristics. To understand how blockchain will change organisation design and decision-making, let’s first dive into the history of organisation design before investigating the impact of this fundamental technology on organising activity.
History of Organisation Design
The theory and practice of organisation design have evolved significantly over the past 100 years. At the beginning of the twentieth century, organisations were mostly viewed as closed bureaucracies. Involving a strict hierarchy of authority and power, these organisations were rational entities and assessed purely on economic performance criteria. It was called the ‘bureaucratic model’, as it captured standardised, authoritative, decision-making procedures, rational discipline and strict separation of planning and execution [1]. This meant that only managers had access to information and were solely responsible for…
