How flat can it get? From better at flatter to the promise of the decentralized, boundaryless organization

Abstract

Should organizations move to flatter designs—or rather: when, why, and how should they do so? In light of a burgeoning literature, I review the well-structured, timely, and applicable contribution that Markus Reitzig’s new book Better at Flatter: A guide to shaping and leading organizations with less hierarchy makes in particular for executives struggling with these questions. At the same time, I highlight how the core arguments on which Reitzig builds his insights and recommendations easily transcend to current academic discussions, and may help inspire further research on the future of organizing more broadly.

Organiblò: Engaging People in “Circular” Organizations and Enabling Social Sustainability

“…Following millennials' main working ambitions [34], a circular organizational structure allows participants to act around an identified and shared mission, which in turn avoids the existence of a hierarchical chain of command but keeps functional areas of individual competences that allow for the achievement of holistic outcomes [35]. Especially in recent years, although "the idea of autonomous teams self-determining how to execute to achieve a pre-specified goal can be traced back at least to king Gustav II Adolph of 17th-century Sweden" [32], an increasing number of companies are nevertheless abandoning traditional hierarchical organizational structures in favor of more sustainable, flexible and collaborative approaches: the objective of these new structures is precisely to create a more agile and sustainable working environment focused on sharing responsibilities, the fluidity of information and continuous innovation [33]. Following millennials' main working ambitions [34], a circular organizational structure allows participants to act around an identified and shared mission, which in turn avoids the existence of a hierarchical chain of command but keeps functional areas of individual competences that allow for the achievement of holistic outcomes [35].…”

Power to the people: A social identity perspective on organizational decentralization and employee well‐being

“…One of the fundamental tasks for organizational leaders is to adopt a form of organizing that will allow them to solve the core challenges of the division of labour and integration of effort in ways that secure high levels of performance (Martela, 2019). The efficacy of any particular form of organizing can be expected to be highly dependent on an organization's specific goals and the characteristics of its competitive environment (Alexy, 2022). At the same time, large‐scale changes in the characteristics of contemporary organizational environments—including the rise of automation, the introduction of new communication technologies, and changes in the demographic and other characteristics of the workforce—have been accompanied by changing trends in the adopted forms of organizing (Bailey, Faraj, Hinds, Leonardi, & von Krogh, 2022).…”