Imagine a company without managers, structure, or even job titles. Sounds like a fantasy of some anarchist collective? Think again. The Las Vegas-based online shoe retailer Zappos, which is entirely owned by Amazon, has recently announced that it will become a holacracy. This rather strange name is inspired by the idea of a Holon, whereby a part of the system embodies the whole. For most companies, adopting a holarchy entails getting rid of a top-down hierarchy. 

Now, in place of clearly defined positions and job titles, Zappos will introduce 400 circles within which employees will have different roles. The idea is for employees to stop hiding behind job titles. Instead, they should take responsibility and become more entrepreneurial. John Bunch, who is responsible for creating this new structure, described it as 'politics-free, quickly evolving to define and operate the purpose of the organization, responding to market and real world conditions in real time.

The picture of self-organizing systems might sound very appealing, but there are some potential hidden costs which enthusiasts ignore at their peril. Business leaders have been trying to create organizations that break away from the traditional machine bureaucracy since the 1960s. Inspired by the various alternative lifestyle movements of the 1960s, these new-age executives sought to replace hierarchy and titles with networks and fluidity. The hope was to develop a workplace where you could be yourself'. Instead of being bureaucrats who stick to the rules, employees could become 'authentocrats' whose job is to express themselves. 

Management gurus such as Tom Peters would tour sports stadiums filled with middle managers in the 1980s and 1990s and 'beg each and every one of you to develop a passionate and public hatred of bureaucracy'. Business schools continue to warn their MBA students of the dangers of hierarchy and encourage them to experiment with self-directed teams, network organizations and careers that matter. Executives no longer want to be tainted with the title of manager. They want to be called something far more sexy and less hierarchical: change agent, intrapreneur, customer champion, or anything with 'leader' in the title. Even David Brent, the hapless manager in The Office, described himself as 'a friend first, and a boss second, probably an entertainer third'....

Questions 

1. Is complex organization without hierarchy possible? What are some of the ways in which hierarchy might be minimized and what are the costs and benefits to whom of doing so? Review the case study and the chapter to prepare your answer.