OrgTech: How Technology Is Changing the Work of Management | Phanish Puranam

Why It Matters

Understanding whether tech augments vertical authority or lateral collaboration helps firms redesign management structures, control costs, and harness AI without unintended workforce disruptions.

Key Takeaways

• Separate production technology from organizational technology for clearer impact.
• Org tech splits into vertical (authority) and lateral (peer) tools.
• Lateral org tech reduces manager demand; vertical impact varies.
• Strong culture can substitute for hierarchical management in coordination.
• AI’s impact hinges on production vs. org role, vertical or lateral.

Summary

The webinar, hosted by INSEAD professor Panish Puranam, examined how emerging technologies reshape the very work of management—not merely the tasks they perform. By introducing the concept of "org tech," the speakers distinguished tools that affect production from those that reconfigure how work is organized, and further divided the latter into vertical (authority‑enhancing) and lateral (peer‑collaboration‑enhancing) categories.

Central to the discussion was a framework of five universal problems of organizing—task division, allocation, motivation, information flow, and exception handling. The panel argued that these problems can be solved either vertically through hierarchical authority or laterally through consensus, and that the two approaches are functionally equivalent: more capacity in one reduces the need for the other. Empirical evidence from a large‑scale study of 23,000 U.S. firms showed a strong negative correlation between managerial intensity and cultural strength, suggesting that robust culture can replace layers of management.

Ariana Marqueti illustrated the point with data harvested from Glassdoor reviews and LinkedIn profiles, applying machine‑learning techniques to gauge cultural alignment and managerial ratios. The analysis revealed that firms with fewer managers required roughly a 5% stronger culture to achieve comparable coordination. The speakers also warned that AI’s impact cannot be reduced to a single question; its role varies depending on whether it serves as production technology or as vertical or lateral org tech.

For practitioners, the takeaway is clear: technology investments must be evaluated through the lens of organizational design. Lateral tools can shrink hierarchical footprints, while vertical enhancements may either amplify or diminish managerial demand based on context. Cultivating a strong, shared culture emerges as a strategic lever that can offset the need for extensive managerial layers, especially as AI and other digital platforms become more pervasive.

Original Description

TECH TALK X, 3 June 2026, 12.00 PM CET by https://digital.insead.edu

Most conversations about technology and work focus on tasks: which jobs will be automated, which skills will matter and what humans will still do. But a growing class of technologies is changing something deeper: how organisations coordinate work, allocate decisions, monitor performance and use managerial authority.

In this TECH TALK, INSEAD Professor Phanish Puranam was joined by his co-authors Piyush Gulati, Assistant Professor, UCL School of Management and Arianna Marchetti, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Singapore Management University, to discuss the idea of OrgTech: technologies that change how organisations divide work, coordinate teams, allocate decisions, monitor performance and resolve exceptions.

Drawing on their research into collaborative work management tools such as Jira, Asana and Smartsheet, the discussion will explore how technology can reshape hierarchy, reduce the need for supervision and shift the balance between centralization and decentralization.

The discussion explores what this means for AI, managers and the future of organisation design. For leaders, the key question is not only which tasks technology can automate, but what kind of organisation technology helps create.

Why watch?

• Understand why the impact of technology on organisations goes beyond automation and job redesign.

• Learn how OrgTech can change hierarchy, supervision, coordination and decision-making.

• Explore when technology decentralizes work and when it can increase control.

• Consider what AI may mean for managers, teams and the future of organization design.

• Reflect on how leaders can build organisations that are both more effective and more human-centric.

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