Can the Holacracy (no boss organization) work in China?
After implementing the Holacracy practice at Zappos, the management practice gets special attention from managers and scholars. So far, the Holacrazy does not work well. But, I give a special attention to this new managerial concept because I believe that a new form of organizational structure is necessary to meet the business environment changes.
A Chinese student thinks that the Holacracy can work in China.
Do you agree with him?
Jeonghwan (Jerry) Choi,
PhD, MBA, ME
REFLECTION ESSAY
Course: Principles of Management
Module 08: Organizing
Name (Pingyin & English): Shen Zhenyao (Stacey)
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, decided to use the creative idea- holacracy in his company. When facing his unexpected management method, a large number of people are hard to understand his action.
Holacracy breaks many thinking methods in traditional management. It shows Tony has his own creative ideas about managing his employees. People always cannot accept new things. At the time of the announcement, 14% of people left the company. And Zappos is becoming weaker during this time period. In society, many traditional managers and scientists do not think this will cause Zappos become more successful. After the implementation of holacracy, the situation of Zappos is becoming worse. As a good manager, there is no reason for Tony to take such a huge risk if there is no reasonable future benefit. Therefore, there are must have some reasons for him to make that decision. It is meaningful to analyze holacracy’s benefits. Holacracy will contribute a lot of benefits to companies. It will increase the relationship between workers, collect more imaginative ideas, and obtain more comprehensive information.
First, holacracy will encourage collaborate and communication by eliminating workplace hierarchy.
Hierarchy let workers just talk with their superior managers. However, in most of time, the manager cannot exactly recognize whether the idea is good or not. It is difficult for people to recognize their errors, but it is easier for other people to figure out their mistakes. Traditional hierarchy causes workers just focus on the work of their own area. If the people in other departments have some suggestion for them, they may consider that as provocation, and not accept it. And the people in other departments always do not want to share their opinions for the misunderstanding. However, holacracy let people dispel this concern, and speak out their advice freely.
Second, more creative ideas will come out. Not only because there are more people can consider about creating new ideas, but also because they are not constrained by others.
In some situation, smart people’s minds are being constrained by knowing too much things. They will automatically think about other similar events and the possible results. However, some normal people may come up with some creative ideas, which are not reasonable but useful. Though the ideas of normal people are not practical. But there are many professional people, who can expand the original simple ideas. Thus, if there are more people can come up new ideas, the company can be developed more unexpected. Moreover, many workers do not say out their ideas because they are not confident, they think they are ineligible to speak out their ideas. Holacracy will avoid they have this kind of concern.
Third, a company can have more detailed information from people. Hierarchy cause CEO just can hear the thought of superior managers.
However, according to a fferent situation, different people can see different aspects. Superior managers just can see the problems, which may happen in a more macroscopic way. Normal people can realize the problems, which may happen because of some tiny things. These tiny things are easy to be ignored by many superior managers, but these tiny things always can cause the deadliest problem. Collecting detailed information is critical for companies.
Holacracy changes a lot of thinking in traditional management.
It will bring many benefits to companies. Although holacracy changes many aspects in traditional management, it is one of the significant trends of future management. Managers should try to learn it and figure out the advantages in it. It is a wise and valuable decision to choose holacracy.
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