In Business, ‘Flat’ Structures Rarely Work. Is There a Solution?

But do flat constructions work? André Spicer, a professor of organizational conduct on the Bayes Business School in London, mentioned that, whereas the “cultural zeitgeist when I was growing up was that hierarchies are bad,” there’s been an growing recognition of each the necessity for them and the truth that they usually reappear in companies ‌that, at the very least theoretically, reject them. “People aren’t just willing to jump on the bandwagon and say, ‘Yeah, let’s have this nonhierarchical structure.’ There’s some degree of suspicion around it.”

In 2012, Valve’s handbook for brand spanking new workers was leaked, revealing its defining characteristic: eschewing managers in favor of an autonomous system through which workers can transfer between initiatives once they selected.

But in a 2013 interview, Jeri Ellsworth, a former Valve worker, mentioned that on the firm, “there is actually a hidden layer of powerful management structure in the company and it felt a lot like high school.” A report in 2022 by People Make Games, a YouTube channel of investigative journalism about video video games, highlighted Valve’s points with range and job evaluation, amongst others. (Neither Ms. Ellsworth nor Valve responded to requests for remark.)

Clifford Oswick, a professor of group principle at Bayes, identified “inherent risks” of discrimination in corporations with extraordinarily flat constructions. The corporations might mirror the identical biases as society, with out safeguards to keep away from them. This signifies that usually in such corporations, Mr. Oswick mentioned, “you’ve still got middle-aged, privileged white men making decisions at the top.”

Mr. Spicer is especially important of start-ups which have tried, or claimed to try, flat constructions, suggesting that failures — and at the very least one main scandal — have emerged from these workplaces. He pointed to Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, her well being care expertise start-up. In a 2015 interview, Ms. Holmes mentioned that Theranos was “a very flat organization and if I have learned anything, we are only as good as the worst people on our team.”