[Note: This is a revised chapter from The Postmodern Organization, a book I wrote 32 years ago. While we might assume that the observations made in this essay are dated, they still seem to be relevant. The nature and purpose of capital and worker values have not changed dramatically over this extended period. We are still living in a hybrid world (premodern, modern, and postmodern) that fires up the engines of postmodern organizations with both old and new forms of capital. Furthermore, we operate in a complex mid-21st-century society that motivates employees in ways unique to the digital world in which we now live, yet enduring from premodern and modern times.]
What does “Capitalism” mean when Knowledge governs—rather than Money? And what do “Free Markets” mean when knowledge workers—and no one else can “own” knowledge—are the true assets? Knowledge workers can be neither bought nor sold. They do not come with a merger or an acquisition. In fact, though the greatest “value,” they have no “market value”—that means, of course, that they are not an “asset” in any sense of the term.
- Peter Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century
If organizations are to survive (perhaps even thrive) in our challenging mid-21st-century environment, leaders must find the physical fuel that fires the organization’s engines. At the same time, these leaders must find the psychological fuel that fires the imagination and capacities of those working in the organization. The major source of the physical fuel is the Capital those who own or lead the organization bring to it. In some organizations, the primary form of capital is highly tangible: land, money, technology. In other organizations, the capital is much less tangible: reputation, knowledge, wisdom. The primary source of psychological fuel in an organization resides in the energy and commitment that are brought by those working in the organization. This second source of fuel is, in turn, associated with Worker Values—the fundamental commitments made by those employed in the organization. Capital and worker values are the blended sources of fuel that fire an organization and keep it alive and vital.
Both sources of fuel reveal something about what really matters in an organization. While some statement regarding the supposed intentions of an organization can readily be identified and articulated, this statement only makes sense if it is backed by the capital invested in the organization and if it is aligned with the values held by those working in the organization. Without a commitment of capital and the alignment of worker values—without a tangible sense of what really matters in the organization—a statement of intention is nothing more than empty rhetoric.
