I love the BBC. They don't need any more bashing from me but is there an opportunity for it to now take a completely new approach to organising themselves? Consider this short story from Kevin Carson's book, Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective:
One of the executive vice-presidents of the Union Carbide Corporation remarked in a private conversation that he and his colleagues "had no idea how to manage a large corporation." He said they simply did not know enough of the corporate workings, nor did they know what to do even if a clear problem was identified.
Sound familiar? His book makes a compelling case for organisations to dentralise and move away from a command and control structure. Other research asks the question: How much does productivity decrease as the organization grows? The answers are frankly frightening. When the size of an organisation trebles, its productivity halves.
The Economist article today, What's gone wrong on Planet Beeb, is worth a read but why no debate around the system used to organise themselves which can never be challenged? Yes find fresh blood and leaders from outside the BBC but this won't be enough to prevent fundamental knowledge and information problems in large organisations.
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