but create flat structures Work, Andre Spicer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Bayes Business School in London, states that, “When I was growing up the cultural ideology was that hierarchies are bad,” there is increasing recognition of both their necessity and the fact that they are often relegated to those in businesses. appear from those who, at least in principle, reject them. “People aren’t ready to just jump on the bandwagon and say, ‘Yeah, let’s have this non-hierarchical structure.’ There is some doubt about it.
in 2012, Valve’s handbook for new employees was leakedRevealing its defining characteristic: the eschewing of managers in favor of an autonomous system in which employees can move between projects as they like.
But in a 2013 interview, Jerry Ellsworth, a former Valve employeeSaid that the company, “actually has a hidden layer of powerful management structure in the company and it feels like high school.” A reports Valve’s issues with diversity and job evaluation were highlighted in 2022 by People Make Games, a YouTube channel of investigative journalism about video games. (Neither Ms. Ellsworth nor Valve responded to requests for comment.)
Clifford Oswick, professor of organization theory at Bayes, pointed to the “inherent risk” of discrimination in companies with extremely flat structures. Companies can reflect prejudices just like society, there are no safeguards to avoid them. This means that often in such companies, Mr. Oswick said, “you still get middle-aged, privileged white men making the decisions at the top.”
Mr Spicer specifically criticizes start-ups that have attempted, or claimed to have attempted, flat structures, suggesting that failures – and at least one major scandal – have emerged from these workplaces. He pointed to Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, her health care technology start-up. In a 2015 interview, Ms. Holmes said that Theranos was “A very flat organization and if I’ve learned anything, we’re only as good as the worst people on our team.”
