210:, which also has rotating, not permanent, team leaders - which Valve terms "group contributors", in recognition of the fact that contributing individually and leading at Valve form a spectrum, not a binary dichotomy. Generally the term of a group contributor at Valve is at most one project, after which time they (voluntarily) rotate back to being an individual contributor. Valve also allows team members to work on whatever they find interesting. This is known as
214:, and means that employees can switch to another team at any time, no questions asked; all desks are on wheels to make this easy. However, because new ideas may require significant resources, someone with a new idea may need to persuade a number of their coworkers to join them in order to create a new team and reach the necessary "critical mass" for the new idea to come to fruition.
225:, who has studied Valve and other examples of "non-leadership", believes that Valve works because it hires high-calibre people who are a good fit for the leaderless environment, and because it was founded as a flat organization from the outset, so that new hires always knew what they were getting into. However, he warns that the
74:
In flat organizations, the number of people directly supervised by each manager is large, and the number of people in the chain of command above each person is small. A manager in a flat organization possesses more responsibility than a manager in a tall organization because there is a greater number
355:
argues that new power dynamics can emerge that undermine the equality afforded by a non-hierarchical context. When an organization decides to no longer place value on a person's position, Baker suggests that new hierarchies based on personality type, skill set, and communication style can emerge.
186:
procedures. However, due to the fact that significant responsibilities are given to the team members themselves, if a team collectively arrives at the view that the procedures it is following are outdated, or could be improved, it may be able to change them. Such changes may, in some cases, require
124:
Australian researchers
Dunford, Bramble and Littler note that delayering in an organisation may also lead to down-sizing: "lthough delayering need not involve down-sizing - because it is possible to redefine the position of existing staff within the new flatter structure - the two often coincide".
158:
An organization with self-managing teams who organize their own work without the need for a middle manager or supervisor above the team may meet or closely approximate this model. While a manager in self-managing teams determines the overall purpose or goal of the team, the team is at liberty to
83:
Empirical evidence from
Ghiselli and Johnson suggests that the amount of independence that managers in flat organizations possess as a result of the flat organizational structure satisfies many of their needs in terms of autonomy and self-realization. The idea behind flat organizations is that
54:
and executives. An organizational structure refers to the nature of the distribution of the units and positions within it, and also to the nature of the relationships among those units and positions. Tall and flat organizations differ based on how many levels of management are present in the
100:
This structure is generally possible only in smaller organizations or individual units within larger organizations. Having reached a critical size, organizations can retain a streamlined structure but cannot keep a completely flat manager-to-staff relationship without affecting
359:
Mark
Henricks, a business journalist and a critic of flat organization, argues that "when you have too little hierarchy, decisions don't get made or are made wrongly by employees who lack experience, accountability, or motivation to do the work of the missing managers".
289:
involves teams self-managing to a large extent (though agile development is commonly still practiced within a hierarchical organization, which means that certain types of decisions such as hiring, firing, and pay raises remain the prerogative of managers). In
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responsibilities may also require a more conventional structure. A company would not have to give a raise or promotion, based on service length but on greater productivity. Also eliminating certain departments from the payroll means saving money.
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a management role as such, but is a role that involves helping remove obstacles to progress and ensuring that the basic scrum framework is adhered to by all parties, inside and outside the team - both aspects of the role being more akin to
787:
Baker, Suzanne J. 2015. "Exploration of
Equality and Processes of Non-Hierarchical Groups." Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change 12, no. 2: 138-158. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 3,
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of individuals immediately below them who are dependent on direction, help, and support. Moreover, managers in a flat organization rely less on guidance from superiors because the number of superiors above the manager is limited.
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by many layers of management. Delayering plans may aim to secure these benefits, although potential risks include undermining employee's confidence in their managers and putting the remaining managers under greater pressure.
167:, which may not be available within the organization due to its flat structure. However, alternative "horizontal" career paths may be available, such as developing greater expertise in a role or
246:, a Finnish software and design consultancy with 400 employees that has a flat hierarchy and self-managing teams and also shares all the relevant business numbers with all of their employees
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If these hierarchies don't get acknowledged, it is much more difficult to address the emergence of a new hierarchy because they remain implicit or undetected.
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240:
Qamcom
Research and Technology, a Swedish specialist company with 125 employees active in the area of communication, radar and automotive systems (40% PhDs).
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may lack middle managers because there are too few staff to justify hiring middle managers; in this type of organization, the business owner or the
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decision-making processes. By elevating the level of responsibility of baseline employees and eliminating layers of middle management, comments and
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for corporate clients). If executive management is not involved in the decision, or merely rubber-stamps it, this might be an example of
461:
Ghiselli, Edwin E.; Siegel, Jacob P. (December 1, 1972). "Leadership and
Managerial Success in Tall and Flat Organization Structures".
429:
Ghiselli, Edwin E.; Siegel, Jacob P. (December 1, 1972). "Leadership and
Managerial Success in Tall and Flat Organization Structures".
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545:
258:, which, like Valve, uses open allocation. However, in response to criticism, GitHub introduced a layer of middle management in 2014.
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329:, Klint Finley has argued that "bossless" companies like Valve might suffer from problems related to the appropriate handling of
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system Valve uses for determining employee remuneration, might become problematic if in the future Valve becomes short of cash.
691:"Work with cutting-edge technology in challenging projects to create lasting value – together with other extraordinary people"
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276:(Marc Rich & Co. AG), once the world's largest commodity group. Marc Rich + Co. utilized a flat management structure.
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294:, an agile framework, team members assign work to be done among themselves, either by free choice or by consensus. The
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An absence of middle managers does not preclude the adoption and retention of mandatory work procedures, including
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reach all personnel involved in decisions more quickly. Expected response to customer feedback becomes more rapid.
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Valve's co-founder has admitted that it has issues with failing to catch bad decisions early on due to a lack of
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However, some organizations do not take on middle managers even as they become larger, remaining extremely flat.
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at the level of a team - or group of teams, if multiple teams are involved in the decision.
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manage the methods by which to achieve that goal. This can cause conflict with people whose
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may perform some of the functions performed by middle managers in larger organizations.
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management and/or customers (consider, for example, a digital agency producing bespoke
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is highly decentralised. Some co-operatives use flat organization, but some do not.
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Other examples of companies with self-managing teams include the following:
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529:"Gain and Pain: The Effects of Australian Public Sector Restructuring"
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will be more productive when they are more directly involved in the
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The flat organization model promotes employee involvement through
535:, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Jun., 1998), pp. 388, accessed 1 December 2020
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Henricks, M. (2005). Falling Flat?. Entrepreneur, 33(1), 69-70.
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The foremost example of a company with self-managing teams is
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813:"There's a War on Middle Management and Tesla Just Joined It"
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A "strong form" of flat organization is an organization with
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organization and how much control managers are endowed with.
762:"Why Workers Can Suffer in Bossless Companies Like GitHub"
221:, due to its lack of managers. Prof. Cliff Oswick from
664:"Valve: How going boss-free empowered the games-maker"
527:Richard Dunford, Tom Bramble and Craig R. Littler,
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505:"The Advantages of Flat Organizational Structure"
734:"Harassment claims make startup GitHub grow up"
706:"The Fourth Qualification For Future Companies"
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562:Making the team : a guide for managers
533:Public Productivity & Management Review
333:, the formation of informal cliques, the "
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62:into a flat organization is known as
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270:, which has no supervising managers
704:Appelo, Jurgen (29 October 2015).
624:"Why There Are No Bosses at Valve"
475:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1972.tb02304.x
443:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1972.tb02304.x
264:, which also uses open allocation.
175:, and/or receiving pay raises for
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662:Leo Kelion (23 September 2013).
326:The Tyranny of Structurelessness
842:Flatten the pyramid (about.com)
760:Finley, Klint (20 March 2014).
632:. 27 April 2012. Archived from
732:Evelyn, Rusli (17 July 2014).
494:, CIPS Procurement Topic, n.d.
1:
811:Walker, Sam (May 18, 2018).
492:Flat/Horizontal Organisation
163:path expectations include a
92:process rather than closely
590:Fried, Jason (April 2011).
546:The Horizontal Organisation
142:no middle management at all
130:The Horizontal Organisation
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592:"Why I Run a Flat Company"
548:, accessed 9 December 2020
509:Small Business - Chron.com
372:, in which organizational
337:" of popular employees, un
385:Hierarchical organization
281:Related business concepts
197:consensus decision-making
60:hierarchical organization
46:with few or no levels of
864:Organizational structure
558:Thompson, Leigh (2000).
408:Workers' self-management
268:The Morning Star Company
70:Organizational structure
44:organizational structure
27:Organizational structure
345:attitudes, and lack of
36:horizontal organization
58:Transforming a highly
869:Types of organization
544:Ostroff, F. (1999),
463:Personnel Psychology
431:Personnel Psychology
399:(dynamic governance)
223:Cass Business School
818:Wall Street Journal
739:Wall Street Journal
403:Workplace democracy
347:workplace diversity
201:workplace democracy
136:Self-managing teams
874:Employee relations
847:2008-09-21 at the
128:Frank Ostroff, in
636:on April 30, 2012
323:'s famous essay
307:than to top-down
298:role in scrum is
287:agile development
219:internal controls
184:quality assurance
48:middle management
32:flat organization
16:(Redirected from
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227:peer-review
858:Categories
601:Retrieved
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514:2015-11-22
469:(4): 618.
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414:References
397:Sociocracy
335:soft power
331:grievances
321:Jo Freeman
315:Criticisms
105:. Certain
94:supervised
64:delayering
18:Delayering
827:0099-9660
675:1 October
391:Open plan
380:Holacracy
374:ownership
262:Treehouse
250:37Signals
189:executive
165:promotion
107:financial
845:Archived
669:BBC News
364:See also
193:websites
119:feedback
79:Benefits
50:between
42:) is an
773:13 July
745:18 July
393:offices
244:Reaktor
229:-based
177:loyalty
169:mastery
144:. Very
86:workers
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711:Forbes
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343:sexist
161:career
767:Wired
603:1 Sep
292:scrum
208:Valve
173:craft
171:of a
52:staff
823:ISSN
775:2014
747:2014
719:2016
677:2013
642:2013
605:2013
597:Inc.
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