In this blog post, Prithvi summarizes the failure of Zappos implementing Holacracy management style, the definition of holacracy, and the problems of it. The content in the article and the wring structure are really clear and coherent, and making me feel fresh.
Prithvi Khanna’s blog post titled “The Cracks in Holacracy” gets my attention by its title. Before reading this post, I have never heard of the term “holacracy” yet. Once I start reading, the introductory paragraph doesn’t help define this term and leaves me puzzled and curious until I start reading the 2nd paragraph. I would like to say this writing strategy is really unique in a way to keep getting readers’ attention on the rest of the article.
Besides my satisfaction, I do have a couple suggestions to improve this blog post:
- This article mainly talks about the issues or problems of holacracy as the title “The Cracks in Holacracy” also suggests, so the blog should not cite the article “Despite Its Flaws, Holacracy Is Saving The Future Of Business”. Although the original article does mention some challenges from adopting holacracy, it is more centered around how some companies are doing well under holacracy.
- Although we know this blog post is related to concepts in Chapter 13: Organizational Structure in OB course, Prithvi still should mention them in the blog post so that we can see the conceptual applications from the course.
In Chapter 13, organizational structure is defined as “how tasks are divided, grouped, and coordinated”. Within organizational structures, bureaucracy follows rigid chain of command and hierarchy; flat organization has almost no level in the hierarchy between staff and executives. I personally think holacracy is between those 2 structures because it does have clearly defined roles and tasks for different positions but evenly distribute the power and decision-makings to the locals as much as possible with goals to increase structural agility and remove bureaucracy.
Word Count: 318
Hansen, Drew. “Despite Its Flaws, Holacracy Is Saving The Future Of Business.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 June 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017
Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition