To dovetail off your statement, “HR also needs to transfer that knowledge to the front-line management who are tasked with managing the workforce”, I fully agree. In fact, I tweeted out a few months ago that, “Marines push leadership to the edges.” I did create a video on the same, but have since removed it. In conversation, I often tell people that the entire Marine Corps exists to support the young Marine at the very front-lines. There is no choice but to push leadership to the edges of the network – the risks of not doing so are too high. Lives hang in the balance, hence the decentralized (maneuver warfare) focus of the USMC, despite the command-and-control hierarchy.

To your point about “Human Machines”, I would suggest that the focus for organizations should be more about facilitating the right atmosphere for efficiently function Human Networks – I wrote here at HRExaminer (within the 1k limit of the “Blank Slate Challenge”) on the same at: http://www.johnsumser.com/2010/03/joshua-letourneau-blank-slate-challenge/

I believe you were speaking to Human Networks with the statement, “How a company creates value is becoming less reliant on the machines in the factory (most of those are now in third-world countries anyway) and more on how the humans get along and produce within the company.” You are right – healthy networks are the key.

Through SNA (Social Network Analysis), I currently work to illuminate the networks you’re describing, despite them being informal and invisible. This is why I believe SNA is becoming the most cutting-edge Mgmt Consulting there is. If we can orient ourselves properly, we can make better, more accurate, faster decisions. This again speaks to maneuver warfare’s OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) made famous by Pilot John Boyd years ago: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/59/pilot.html

Keep the good word coming