When the number of enterprises or organizations is determined, due to the limitation of effective management scope, it is necessary to increase the management level, which is inversely proportional to the management scope. Under the traditional management mode, when the scale of the organization expands and the management scope has its limit, the management level will gradually improve. The number of employees in those large multinational companies can reach hundreds of thousands, and the management level is even more.
Traditional management theories are mostly put forward around the organizational characteristics of hierarchical structure, such as "Fourteen Principles of Management" put forward by Fa Yueer, who is known as the "father of management theory". According to Fa Yueer's theory, the superior can't leapfrog command, and the subordinate can't leapfrog for instructions and reports. This is regarded as a classic in traditional theory. However, the organizational form of hierarchical structure and the corresponding classical management theory have encountered unprecedented challenges. According to Fa Yueer's theory, the instructions of IBM's top decision makers will eventually be transmitted to the most basic executors through 18 management, which will not only waste time, but also make information distortion and distortion more inevitable.
In a relatively stable market environment, hierarchical organization is an efficient organization form. However, this form of organization is increasingly unable to adapt to the development and changes of the market, which is manifested as follows: first, the scale of enterprise organizations is getting larger and larger, resulting in a large number of super multinational companies called "dinosaurs", and there are already too many management levels to make them unable to operate effectively; Second, the external environment is changing rapidly. Grove, chairman of Intel Corporation in the United States, summed up this change with a classic sentence: "In modern society, the only constant is change." Grove put forward the theory of "ten times variable speed" for this purpose. The rapid change of external environment requires enterprises to respond quickly and have strong adaptability, but what many management levels lack is a kind of rapid response ability and adaptability to change.
So how can we solve the problem of hierarchical organization in modern environment? It is found that flattening is the most effective method. When the scale of an enterprise expands, the original effective way is to increase the management level, while the effective way is to increase the management scope. When the management level decreases and the management scope increases, the pyramid-shaped organizational form is "compressed" into a flat organizational form.
The trend of decentralized management and the influence of external environment make the flat organizational structure popular all over the world. However, in the process of flattening organizational structure, some enterprises ignore the essential thing, that is, the reconstruction of people and corporate culture.
Since Welch successfully rebuilt GE, the flat organizational structure has gradually become a management fashion, which has been accepted and practiced by many enterprises in China. However, like many fashionable management concepts (such as lean production and six sigma), the result of flat organizational structure is that several families are happy and several are sad. The performance of some enterprises has not increased, but there has been an obvious downward trend. Is it the flattening itself or something else?
Compared with the traditional organizational structure, the flat organizational structure has the advantages of flexibility and democracy, which can reduce bureaucracy, strengthen internal communication, mobilize the creativity of employees, and respond to environmental changes including consumer demand more quickly. 198 1 Welch became the CEO of General Electric Company, and the management structure of General Electric Company has undergone drastic reforms. From 198 1 to 1992, the company laid off more than 350 departments, the management level dropped sharply from 12 to 5 floors, and the vice president decreased from 130 to 13. Through this reform, the bureaucracy of GE has been greatly reduced and its flexibility has been significantly improved.
However, why does flattening become a panacea in general electric company, but the effect is very low in other enterprises? There are many reasons. But the most important point is that imitators ignore the essential thing, that is, the reconstruction of human and corporate culture.
Welch wrote that outstanding talents make great companies. In Welch's era, personnel training received unprecedented attention in General Electric Company. During his tenure as CEO, Welch spent a lot of time "creating people" with the human resources department. As a result, General Electric Company became the administrator of West Point Military Academy, and a large number of outstanding management talents emerged. Imagine that if General Electric Company lacks a solid talent base, it will not make any achievements, whether it is six sigma or flattening.
After the flattening of the organization, the management level of the enterprise is reduced, followed by an increase in the scope of management and an increase in the difficulty of management. In this case, success mainly depends on the following three factors.
The first is the decentralization of decision-making power. Enterprises must redistribute decision-making power, that is, re-divide power boundaries. Enterprise managers should answer a question: which decision-making power should be retained, which power should be delegated and which level should be delegated. If this problem is not solved, it may cause the authority of some managers or even senior managers to be too centralized, and even lead to confusion.
The second is the management ability of middle and lower managers. After the downward transfer of power, middle and lower managers will not only encounter more decision-making problems, but also the number of employees who need their guidance and supervision may increase. At this time, if the management ability of these middle managers is not improved accordingly, there may be a tendency of strong control or out of control, which will eventually lead to the disorder of enterprises.
The third is the quality of employees. After the implementation of the flat organizational structure, enterprises will rely more on the consciousness and initiative of employees, and some enterprises will give ordinary employees specific decision-making power. On the one hand, it can reduce the pressure of middle and lower managers, on the other hand, it is also conducive to giving play to the enthusiasm and creativity of employees.
Enterprises hope to solve the problem of slow or even distorted information transmission by flattening the organization, so as to improve the sensitivity of enterprises to changes in the external environment. Disappointingly, however, the smoothness of information transmission channels is not directly related to the flattening of organizational structure. Flattening does not necessarily mean improving the efficiency of information transmission. In other words, the top manager will not be able to have a more thorough understanding of the enterprise he controls, because the enterprise has implemented a flat organizational structure.
In fact, the efficiency of information transmission depends not only on the number of channel nodes, but also on the effectiveness of internal communication, because many people are selective and purposeful when transmitting the information they have, except that some information can be transmitted through some channels. In other words, he can decide whether and how to transmit the information he has under the conditions permitted by the rules and regulations.
A family of three can be said to be the most typical flat organization, but the information transmission between husband and wife, parents and children is not always smooth. For families who can communicate effectively, the transmission of information will be relatively faster and more real.
This is true not only for families, but also for enterprises. Generally speaking, everyone in an enterprise should consider his own interests. If they feel that the information they provide will bring them trouble, there is no doubt that most people will choose to keep their mouths shut-as long as they feel that this silence does not violate the relevant regulations of the enterprise. For example, Bill Gates wrote in his book Future Speed: "Sometimes I feel that as a CEO, my most important duty is to listen to bad news. If you don't take appropriate action, your subordinates will eventually stop giving you bad news. This will be the beginning of the end. " Not only employees will report good news intentionally or unintentionally, but also consultants of some consulting companies will report bad news. Professor Eric de Hahn, author of "Advice on Deception", points out that counselors are usually more likely to provide some pleasant suggestions than challenging ones.
The premise of "three stooges are better than Zhuge Liang" is that these three stooges can communicate and cooperate effectively, but a flat organization cannot guarantee the smooth communication and cooperation between the stooges. In some enterprises that implement horizontal organization, the reduction of levels leads to the reduction of promotion opportunities, which intensifies the competition between employees and managers at all levels, thus increasing the difficulty of coordination and cooperation. At this time, communication is more important.
Therefore, the smooth communication within the enterprise is directly related to the result of flattening transformation. Moreover, some management scholars have suggested that the efficiency of communication also determines whether an enterprise can achieve sustained success. The research of consulting company shows that the continuous outstanding performance of enterprises is related to the quality of internal communication. The company believes that if an enterprise wants to achieve sustained success, it must form an atmosphere of open discussion within the enterprise, even if it is the most difficult or even embarrassing problem for today's leaders.
In addition, a strong and healthy corporate culture is also essential. This is not to say that flat enterprises reject cultural construction, but we should not imagine that flat enterprises can replace the cultivation of culture. The Economist once pointed out that in the 2 1 century, the former "company man" has evolved into "network man". One of the characteristics of "network people" is high mobility. Let us take Dell as an example. Today, about 50% of Dell employees have worked in the company for less than five years, and 40% of employees are "mobile", that is, they no longer need to check in at the Dell office every day. Another feature of "network people" is that the relationship between people is vague and complicated. This not only brings communication problems, but also means that enterprises weaken the centripetal force of employees.
As early as thousands of years ago, Mencius put forward the view that "the weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as human harmony", which still shines brilliantly today. Sun Tzu also pointed out: "Tao makes people close to each other, so they can die with it and live with it, regardless of difficulties." Enterprises can't expect employees to live and die with them, but lack a strong and dynamic culture. Even a flat organization may be rigid and unsustainable.