Holacracy in action: Zappos experience replicability

Abstract

Over the last decades, several studies have investigated the formal to flat structure in terms of standardization, reporting relationships, level of the hierarchy and the impacts on the organizational performance. From 1960 to 2000, the characteristics of success hierarchy in an organization are a stable environment and levels of transparency and foreseeable future. Nevertheless, in today's world has changed, a new type of organizational structure, Holacracy has been emerged to satisfy the need for flexibility and adapt quickly to the business environment. Hence, Holacracy is designed differently where the employees take over management roles. The purpose of this master thesis is to discuss the current business environment and to discuss various literature studies regarding Holacracy especially in the case of Zappos. The following is a brief overview of hierarchy and follows by traditional organizational structures. After that, the new form of organization Holacracy is analyzed from how it works and how an organization can move from traditional organizational structures to a holacratic. The study is also going to discuss either Holacracy is important from the beginning of the company lifecycle or it is flexible adaptability for those stable and well-known large organizations. Additionally, the discussion is going to focus on is it too risky for a large organization to undergoes huge transformations to holacratic structure due to the complexity and expecting a long period of shifting process.