Online shoe retailer Zappos, which has for sometime been trying out a hierarchy-free work culture, or holacracy, has finally decided the time has come to implement it in toto.
Zappos, based in Las Vegas, has decided to fully adopt holacracy by the end of April, company CEO Tony Hsieh is reported to have said.
Holacracy is a system in which authority and decision-making are spread through self-organizing teams rather than being vested at the top of a hierarchy. The system was propagated by software engineer Brian Robertson.
Zappos is reported to have said that employees who do not like holacracy will be offered severance packages if they resign by April 30. Zappos, owned by Amazon and has 1,500 employees, is the largest company known to have adopted holacracy.
Holacracy is said to enhance creativity among team members, and some companies and non-profit organizations have been implementing it.
Contrary to perceptions that holacracy is a free-for-all with no accountability, the system ensures that employees get clear roles, clear expectations and clear autonomy.
Zappos' move comes as the workplace is starting to be dominated by millennials (those born between 1980 and the early 2000s) who are comfortable in trying out with new corporate governance practices.
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