Works
- Beyond the holacracy hype, Harvard Business Review (July to August 2016), 2016
- Self-managing organizations: exploring the limits of less-hierarchical organizing, Research in Organizational Behavior 37, 35 to 58, 2017
- Enacting decentralized authority: the practices and limits of moving beyond hierarchy, Administrative Science Quarterly 69(3), 791 to 833, 2024
In Organizational Structures
Known for
The study of self-managing organizations
Ideas
Self-managing organizations. Self-managing organizations radically decentralize authority in a formal and systematic way throughout the organization, a phenomenon earlier research on post-bureaucracy, humanistic management, and organizational democracy leaves poorly understood. Caveat: A review.
Enacting decentralized authority. Decentralized authority must be continually enacted through practices that set clear boundaries of authority and depersonalize its source, and these practices are demanding enough that organizations are pulled back toward hierarchy. Caveat: One organization.
Self-managing organizations. With Edmondson, Lee defined self-managing organizations as radically decentralizing authority in a formal and systematic way throughout the organization. Caveat: A review and research agenda.