The Second Curve by Charles Handy

Author:Charles Handy [Charles Handy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2015-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

A shamrock, like a clover, has only three leaves. In my concept the first, central leaf is made up of the core workforce, who together own the key intellectual and management skills of the organisation, the things that make it what it is, what the management thinkers Gary Hamel and the late C. K. Prahalad have called its core competence. In the second leaf are the secondary organisations to which some of the subsidiary work of the organisation is outsourced. The third leaf is a combination of hired individuals, some of them highly skilled but too expensive to be employed full-time, some of them lower-skilled part-time help. The stalk of the leaf is the management that holds it all together. The exact balance between the three leaves depends on the needs and situation of each organisation. A university is heavily dependent on the central leaf. Many a small consultancy will operate with a minute centre and a band of free associates in the third leaf. Some organisations go too far and put too many of their functions in the second leaf, thereby losing control of some key aspects of their work.

In the citizenship model only those in the central leaf would be given citizenship, with all its rights and responsibilities. The precise shape and balance of the shamrock is therefore a key decision for any organisation, be it a university, a voluntary organisation or a commercial concern. They cannot afford to be too generous with the rights of citizenship, but they need the commitment that comes with it. Universities typically wait until someone has proved themselves before they award them tenure and a permanent contract. A key question for a business shamrock is the position of the shareholders. They are not, and cannot be, a part of the shamrock. Stretching the metaphor a bit, they are best seen as the fertiliser or the planter of the seed, crucial but outside, investors not partners. As investors they currently have the sole right to elect the directors of the company. In a citizenship business they will have to share these rights with the citizen body. They will naturally resist, but, in time, they will have to accept that those who provide their knowledge, skills and energies have as much right to influence the policy of the organisation as those who have loaned it their money or, in most cases, merely traded in its shares.

Citizenship is the key concept in a democracy. Odd then that Britain still calls its people subjects not citizens. Maybe its organisations will be the first to give the idea its proper prominence, if only to secure their survival in a mercenary world. If they do they will be working with the grain of the new workforce which is growing up influenced by the new shape of the home and family that has come about in the last 30 years or so. Michael Maccoby, a psychoanalyst and renowned leadership authority, has described how the modern dual-career or single-parent families,

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