Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

Post by osigurdson » Mon, Apr 22, 2024, 12:13 PM UTC

7thaccount wrote: post #100

bjornsing wrote: post #34

> Stewart Butterfield, former CEO of Slack, recently described a dynamic within tech companies behind much of the over-hiring. He noted on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast in late May that when there’s no real constraint on hiring, “you hire someone, and the first thing that person wants to do is hire other people.” The reason is that “the more people who report to you, the higher your prestige, the more your power in th…

It's called "empire building" and is also part of the principal-agent problem where the manager is the agent and is assumed to have the firm's best interests in mind, but in reality doesn't. As a result, the principal (for example an owner) has to come up with methods to keep their management honest (example... tying most compensation to stock price - although I think this just makes management short sighted). I was…

Post by consp » Mon, Apr 22, 2024, 12:17 PM UTC

robertlagrant wrote: post #293

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone went into the pool, then the mgrs would pick teams. Your actual progress through your career was loosely tied to how quickly you were chosen. Reminiscent of choosing teams in PE/sports lessons at school. The sporty kids who were good at the teacher's favourite sport get to pick, and kids like I was get left to the end. Nice way to get familiar with the pecking order at an early stage.

It's a good way of getting the best team(s), which is what you want in a company. Maybe not so great for the emotional development of children, of course, but it's hard to say.

Post by matwood » Mon, Apr 22, 2024, 12:20 PM UTC

silvestrov wrote: post #291

tsimionescu wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some limit to how many people you can manage effectively. So, in a company with, say, 10,000 employees, you can't have just one layer of management between COs and ICs. You'd either need each manager to work with 500 direct reports, or you'd need the COs to work with 500 managers. If we look at 100,000 employee orgs, this gets even sillier. If you even attempt something like this, what will actually happen w…

Depends on if you are managing people or you are micromanaging people. It should be possible to manage 22 employees if you are good at setting directions and explaining why those directions have been chosen. You can have 22 people in one room and do functional group discussions, this is like a good size for a school class. 1 CEO -> 22 level A managers each level A manager -> 22 level B = 22 * 22 = 484 level B each le…

Post by cyanydeez » Mon, Apr 22, 2024, 12:27 PM UTC

adastra22 wrote: post #257

tsimionescu wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, a thousand years of refinement and a set of company values that most employees have instilled into them since birth will do that to an organization.

That, and also most of the work of a church (interaction with laypeople) is self-evident, local, and easily managed. Once trained, a priest can be set loose on a community without much oversight. Likewise, I can imagine a chain of Montessori schools being similarly organized, or a trade guild.

Post by wil421 » Mon, Apr 22, 2024, 12:34 PM UTC

kjkjadksj wrote: post #226

datascienced wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are not many options. Headcount might help (secondment, overtime, contractors, move from another team, new hire) or pushing other work back (or cancelling it, reducing scope) or saying no (find a workaround, go without it). I might of missed it but there is only so much you can do. A win win might be showing how doing X now is not worth it because event Y makes X obsolete or less valuable.

You can just have a queue. I’ve seen departments that basically function as an internal vendor of services to other departments. First in first out. Fixed schedule to expect turn around on most requests. No one complains. Seems quite pragmatic and fair.