Flat
Zappos and Haier reorganise work
By Shiva Kakkar
Examine how organisational design redistributes authority. Comparing Zappos and Haier, students assess who can make decisions after management layers disappear and test their assumptions about what makes self-management work.
- Format
- Reflective case
- Discipline
- Organisation Design
- Duration
- 90-minute session
- Length
- 25 pages
Teaching materials
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In 2015, Zappos abolished people managers and adopted Holacracy. Work was organised through roles, circles and a written constitution. Haier also removed layers of management, organising work through micro-enterprises responsible for their own business results. Both changes appeared to bring decisions closer to the people doing the work.
The resemblance becomes harder to sustain when two teams need the same person, or when a decision benefits one unit while creating work for another. Removing a reporting line does not establish who can settle the disagreement.
Flat examines what employees could decide for themselves under each arrangement, and what they still had to negotiate. Would the structure you find more liberating as an employee be the one you would choose as a manager? Students record their initial expectations and revisit them as the evidence develops.
Includes an interactive artefact or workbook to support the learner’s thinking.*
*Some artefacts need AI access, available through Rehearsal OS.
Learning objectives
- Assess where decision-making authority sits after formal management layers are removed.
- Use evidence from two organisations to test an explanation for their different results.
- Examine which assumptions about self-management apply to an organisation you know.