Zappos Shoes, led by young CEO Tony Hsieh, is well known for its non-traditional approaches to the workplace. From the background materials you should be familiar with traditional organizational structures such as the hierarchical organization, the flat organization, or the matrix organization. But CEO Hsieh plans an even more radical approach to organizing his online shoe retailing company called holacracy. This radical new approach involves eliminating hierarchies and even eliminating job titles.
Many of you are used to working in a hierarchical organization, so as you can see this new form of organization (or perhaps "lack of organization") will be a huge change over what most of us are used to. But for purposes of this assignment we must decide whether or not holacracy is likely to work for Zappos Shoes. This assignment reflects the radical new ideas of a younger CEO like Tony Hsieh as compared to more traditional structures found in the older and more established Fortune 500 companies.
Here are some readings on Zappos and holacracy to get you started:
Frean, A. (2014, Jan 06). How holacracy killed the hierarchy in companies going flat-out for success, The Times [ProQuest]
Cook, D. (2014). Ready for holacracy? Zappos says it is. Benefits Selling.Breaking News[ProQuest]
Shiers, L. (2010, 03). Touring Zappos. Footwear Plus, 52 [ProQuest}
When you have finished researching Zappos' current business model and holacracy, then write a four- to five-page paper answering the following questions:
- What risks and challenges does Zappos face in implementing holacracy?
- Overall what do you think the chances are of holacracy succeeding at Zappos?
- What advantages or disadvantages do you think holacracy has over more traditional structures such as a hierarchical or matrix structure? Of the structures you have read about in the background materials, which one do you think would be the best match for Zappos? Explain your reasoning and make sure to cite Havinal (2009) and at least one other book chapter from the background materials as part of your answer.
Assignment Expectations
- Integrate readings on the concept of holacracy, Zappos Shoes' organizational structure, and on traditional forms of organization structure.
- Answer the assignment questions directly.
- Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
- Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See theStudent Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the "Writing Style Guide," which is found under "My Resources" in the TLC Portal.