As usual, Rol has sent us some food for thought re: flat and steep.
Everything he says in his most recent posting seems reasonable to me.
This is not to say that it has to seem reasonable to me, I just want to
put in context my next nit-picky comment.
Rol wrote,
"Otherwise, there would be examples of totally flat organizations -- 1
layer -- that would be successful in their niches."
In a posting I made yesterday (that I haven't seen show up yet so I may be
sending them to cyberia again) about the book "Out of Control," I
commented on the concept of distributed networks with no central
controller. I think that the market place taken as a whole is a totally
flat organization - 1 layer - that is successful in its niche. The book
points out that managed economies, aka, communist collectives, did not
work very well as compared to the U.S. or free world market places have
worked.
What do you think, Rol, on a macro scale will this serve as an example of
a totally flat and successful org?
I also think that virtual orgs may be examples. When teams come together
on a project basis and dissolve into the night when the project is
complete, it seems to me that they are flat teams. The only "hierarchy"
being the organizing value proposition that brought the team members
together.
Again, Rol, do we have two examples?
Later.
-- Willard Jule 75272.3452@compuserve.com