Smart Organizations in the Digital Age

The chapter aims to present and explain the concept of the smart organization. This concept arose from the need for organizations to respond dynamically to the changing landscape of a digital economy. A smart organization is understood to be both internetworked and knowledgedriven, and therefore able to adapt to new organizational challenges rapidly. It is sufficiently agile to respond to opportunities of the digital age. The three networking dimensions of smart organizations, ICTenabled virtuality, organizational teaming, and knowledge hyperlinking, are elaborated. This networking capability allows smart organizations to cope with complexity and with rapidly changing economic environments. The paper also shows how managing the smart organization requires a more “fuzzy” approach to managing smart resources: people, information, knowledge, and creativity. Research is also presented, mainly from the European perspective. It has been key to creating the conditions for organizations to become smart. IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING This paper appears in the publication, Integration of ICT in Smart Organizations edited by Istvan Mezgar © 2006, Idea Group Inc. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com ITB12138

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