Assignment Overview
Zappos Shoes, led by young CEO Tony Hsieh, is well known for its non-traditional approaches to the workplace. From the Background materials you should be familiar with traditional organizational structures such as the hierarchical organization, the flat organization, or the matrix organization. But CEO Hsieh plans an even more radical approach to organizing his online shoe retailing company, called "holacracy." This is radical new approach involves eliminating hierarchies and even eliminating job titles.
Many of you are used to working in a hierarchical organization, so as you can see, this new form of organization (or perhaps "lack of organization") is a huge change over what most of us are used to. But for purposes of this assignment we must decide whether or not holacracy is likely to work for Zappos Shoes. This assignment reflects the radical new ideas of a younger CEO like Tony Hsieh as compared with more traditional structures found in the older and more established structures in Fortune 500 companies.
Here are some readings on Zappos and holacracy to get you started:
Frean, A. (2014, Jan 06). How holacracy killed the hierarchy in companies going flat-out for success, The Times [ProQuest]
Cook, D. (2014). Ready for holacracy? Zappos says it is. Benefits Selling.Breaking News [ProQuest]
Shiers, L. (2010, 03). Touring Zappos. Footwear Plus, , 52 [ProQuest]
Case Assignment
When you have finished researching Zappos' current business model and holacracy, write a 4- to 5-page paper that answers the following questions:
What risks and challenges does Zappos face in implementing holacracy?
Overall, what do you think the chances are of holacracy succeeding at Zappos?
Do you think holacracy would work with a traditional Fortune 500 company? Why or why not?