English

Alternative forms

• ad hocrat
• ad-hocrat

Noun

adhocrat ‎(plural adhocrats)

1. (business, organizational theory) One who espouses or practises adhocracy.
   • 1976, H[arry] Igor Ansoff, Roger P. Declerck, and Robert L. Hayes, editors, From Strategic Planning to Strategic Management, London; New York, N.Y.: Wiley InterScience, ISBN 978-0-471-03223-6, page 189:

     The efficient manager of bureaucracy was to be replaced by a change-responsive ‘adhocrat’ (Toffler, 1970).^[1] But […] the 1950s’ tasks of management are not being replaced, but enlarged and complemented; much of the equipment of the industrial manager will remain vital to the firm’s success.

   • 1976, Administration & Society, volume 8, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Periodicals Press, ISSN 0095-3997, OCLC 215957461, page 268:

     There is, thus, in the professional activity of the adhocrat, or the common type of consultant, no delimitative intentionality. In opposition to this orientation, paraeconomy is conceived as a category of confrontal and delimitative thinking.

   • 1979, Yearn H[ong] Choi, Introduction to Public Administration: Essays and Research Notes, Virginia Beach, Va.: The Donning Company, ISBN 978-0-915442-90-4, page 169:

     "Ad hocracy" challenges traditional bureaucracy by denying its basic unit, position; instead of routine, position will be changing constantly, varied as to "ad hocrat". Division of labor becomes outdated in this conjecture: everyone is a generalist and specialist simultaneously due to the explosion of knowledge. Toffler foresees the equality of workers' capabilities. Today's janitor will be tomorrow's president. Rotating the job is an indicator of an egalitarian society.

   • 1981, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, The New Science of Organizations: A Reconceptualization of the Wealth of Nations, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-0-8020-5527-9, page 196:

     [T]he para-economist should not be confused with what Alvin Toffler calls the adhocrat.

   • 1992, Richard Veryard, Information Modelling: Practical Guidance (BCS Practitioner Series), New York, N.Y.: Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-454182-2, page 171:

     The adhocrat is reluctant to tie his/her hands in advance, and prefers to wait and judge each case on its merits. This makes an adhocracy open not only to innovation, but also to corruption and inefficiency.

   • 2002, Evert Gummesson, “RM, the Network Organization and the Network Society”, in Total Relationship Marketing, 2nd edition, Oxford; Woburn, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-7506-5407-4, page 270:

     In R&D and engineering, skunk works are guerrilla operations; they are the outlaws of the formal organization. They hide their work from management who may be too remote from the pulse of the market and new technology. […] Skunks are adhocrats but illegitimate adhocrats. They can be punished and rejected. They can be tacitly tolerated, […]

   • 2004, Kate Burns, Fighters against Censorship (History Makers), San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books, ISBN 978-1-59018-340-3, page 91:

     Mitch[ell Kapor] had become the central civil-libertarian ad-hocrat. Mitch had stood up first, he had spoken out loudly, directly, vigorously and angrily, he had put his own reputation, and his very considerable personal fortune, on the line.

Related terms

• adhocracy
• adhocratic
• adhocratical (rare)
• adhocratically

References

1. ↑ Alvin Toffler (1970) Future Shock, New York, N.Y.: Random House, OCLC 301538053.