Question

Case Synopsis: 80% of Zappos Employees No Longer Have a Manager

Zappos announced late last year that it would eliminate titles and traditional managers from its company. The company says that 80% of its 1,500 employees are now working under Holacracy, a new organizational philosophy meant to offer workers more flexibility by replacing traditional job titles with a fluctuating number of roles that each employee is assigned. Rather than being accountable to a single boss in a traditional hierarchy, each employee reports to the other people in their “circles.” Each circle has an organizational goal to achieve, and each role that people fill within the circle is a task necessary for accomplishing that goal.

Zappos still has some hierarchy, such as the job of assigning roles within each circle. One of the biggest challenges posed by the new system has been teaching employees what Holacracy is and how to use it. It’s unclear how much the company has functionally changed since it began its transition at the end of last year. Zappos hopes the move to Holacracy will pay off by helping the company improve internal communication and by allowing employees to push the company into areas it has not previously ventured into.

Questions

1. How might fluctuating job roles affect employees’ productivity?

2. As an employee, what advantages and disadvantages do you see to Holacracy?

3. Search the Internet and outline additional changes that have occurred at Zappos since the new management structure was implemented. Do you think the structure will be a success? Why or why not?

3 sentens for each Q

Answer 1

1. Employees get attuned and habituated to a particular job role. As per the learning curve, they start getting expertise in a particular field which would ultimately help in cost reduction for a particular task. Fluctuating job roles will affect the productivity of the employees negatively and they don't get expertise in a particular task.

2. Advantages :

Employees will learn new skills and tasks every time and would not face any difficulty when a particular employee leaves the organization.

They will have flexibility to learn new skills and roles and thus can overcome the boredom in the job.

Disadvantages

Fluctuating job roles will affect the productivity of the employees negatively and they don't get expertise in a particular task.

The employees would not be accountable for a particular task.

3. Zappos was acquired by Amazon in 2009. They shifted their headquarter to Las Vegas City Building and was ranked 23rs in the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies to Work with. Company started encouraging the employees to use social media to engage with customers.

Thus the new organizational structure proved to be success and employees found it very flexible and convenient to work with. Thus they were as one of the Best companies to work with.