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Red Hat CEO Applies Open-Source Principles to Management [VIDEO]

When Jim Whitehurst set out to write his book The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance, he wasn’t looking to define the open-source movement in the same way that Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar defined open-source. Rather than define open-source as a development methodology, Whitehurst’s focus is on open-source principles as applied to […]

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Sean Michael Kerner

Jun 29, 2015

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When Jim Whitehurst set out to write his book The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance, he wasn’t looking to define the open-source movement in the same way that Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar defined open-source. Rather than define open-source as a development methodology, Whitehurst’s focus is on open-source principles as applied to the domain of company management.

In a video interview, Whitehurst details what the motivation for the book is about, and why there won’t be a new theory of management anytime soon.

“The book describes how Red Hat does it (management) holistically in company that is in 60 countries with almost 8,000 employees,” Whitehurst said. “I wouldn’t call it a new theory of management as much as I would say it is a holistic structure that works at a pretty reasonable scale, that I could image scaling dramatically beyond.”

Whitehurst’s hope is that the book helps to describe open-source principles as they apply to management. But overall the book is a contribution to the broader corpus of thought and management books on what is the most effective way to manage and lead an organization in the 21st century.

Watch the full video interview with Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat below:

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Datamation and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist

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