Hierarchy and Culture
Just how relevant do you find hierarchy in the workplace? Do you work best if left on your own, or does a more rigid structure help keep you in line and motivated? A recent opinion piece in Businessweek makes a pair of expert-given arguments regarding hierarchy in the workplace.
One expert condemns hierarchy as a vestige of 20th century thinking that ultimately stifles ingenuity and zaps motivation. The other sees it as a necessary reality of effective management, that when applied intelligently keeps an organization motivated and on track.
What I found most interesting was how the article was written from a North American, corporate perspective. It doesn’t frame its arguments against the all-important cultural notion of where and with what group a hierarchical or non-hierarchical approach to management might work best or worst. Of course, the overarching question is: today, can we really afford to neglect the work styles of our global colleagues? For many of us, we are beyond a workplace where we only interact with co-workers from our own culture.
Everything we’ve experienced at RW3 CultureWizard, including years of studying the role culture plays in the workplace, tells us that arguments such as the ones posed by Businessweek are completely country- and culture-relative. For instance, a non-hierarchical approach might work for Google in the US, but how about Google India, where hierarchy is an entrenched cultural value and the definition of a “good employee” isn’t nearly the same as in the US?
Would you thrive or falter if your workplace approach to hierarchy suddenly shifted in the opposite direction?
Adam
