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When the Monkeys Run the Zoo: The Pitfalls of Flat Hierarchies
Every change takes its toll. Stefan KUhl critically examines the blind enthusiasm that continues to celebrate the leveling of hierarchies and the decentralization of organizations. Relying on studies performed in European and U.S. companies, KUhl describes why these management concepts can carry organizations to the edge of extinction. Organizations are facing the challenge of coming to grips with the threat of losing their identity, ever-escalating complexity, and the power struggles that result from both.
154 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 19, 2019
Read the full review on excellentbookreviews.com
Early industrial companies were characterized by a strict hierarchy of power and decision-making competency. Giving employees a say in the company’s strategy would be like having the monkeys run the zoo, an indiscretion voiced by Frank Borman, CEO of Eastern Airlines, from which the book derives its title. The modern company is lean, flat, agile, disruptive, kind, regenerative and decentralized. This creates problems. To be specific, author Thomas Kühn identifies three main dilemmas:
The three dilemmas of modern organizations
The identity dilemma refers to organizational subunits gaining increased autarky. But as companies dissolve into independent departments, profit centers and teams, it becomes unclear, what is within and without of the organization. This way, synergy effects of centralization are lost.
Breaking the strict hierarchy of old timey organizations in favor of flat structures clearly improved the quality of life for workers. But it also removed clarity and gave rise to informal communication and decision-making structures. Without a person indisputably in charge, each decision requires involvement of topic experts, division leaders and influencers, and the outcome may depend on individual moods and favoritism. When the Monkeys Run the Zoo calls this the dilemma of politicization.
Complexity in organization is a bad thing, that’s something most would agree on. Yet, in the pursuit of complexity reduction, organizations may unwillingly increase their complexity. The outsourcing of complex work is a way of simplification, but the increased difficulty to oversee externally delivered results, the lowered employee motivation (due to reduced scope of work) and the difficulties of innovations upstream and downstream of the “black box” established by outsourcing create enough new complexity to mitigate the benefits. Another good example is the removal of redundant processes, which reduces complexity but inadvertently also creates fragility, as redundant processes also serve as an emergency option to react to unexpected events. The complexity dilemma is that even from the interaction of simple rules can arise unmanageably complex structures and processes.
Cyclic phenomena or outdated references?
Companies have come a long way since the beginning of the industrialization. From the top-heavy hierarchical bureaucratic behemoths of the Taylorist/Fordist age of the early 20th century, modern organizations evolved into the lean and agile profit center structure – of the late 90s? Seriously, reading the book gave me the impression that there is a lack of recent literature citations. I did the data and it turn out that my feeling was completely right...
...
Early industrial companies were characterized by a strict hierarchy of power and decision-making competency. Giving employees a say in the company’s strategy would be like having the monkeys run the zoo, an indiscretion voiced by Frank Borman, CEO of Eastern Airlines, from which the book derives its title. The modern company is lean, flat, agile, disruptive, kind, regenerative and decentralized. This creates problems. To be specific, author Thomas Kühn identifies three main dilemmas:
The three dilemmas of modern organizations
The identity dilemma refers to organizational subunits gaining increased autarky. But as companies dissolve into independent departments, profit centers and teams, it becomes unclear, what is within and without of the organization. This way, synergy effects of centralization are lost.
Breaking the strict hierarchy of old timey organizations in favor of flat structures clearly improved the quality of life for workers. But it also removed clarity and gave rise to informal communication and decision-making structures. Without a person indisputably in charge, each decision requires involvement of topic experts, division leaders and influencers, and the outcome may depend on individual moods and favoritism. When the Monkeys Run the Zoo calls this the dilemma of politicization.
Complexity in organization is a bad thing, that’s something most would agree on. Yet, in the pursuit of complexity reduction, organizations may unwillingly increase their complexity. The outsourcing of complex work is a way of simplification, but the increased difficulty to oversee externally delivered results, the lowered employee motivation (due to reduced scope of work) and the difficulties of innovations upstream and downstream of the “black box” established by outsourcing create enough new complexity to mitigate the benefits. Another good example is the removal of redundant processes, which reduces complexity but inadvertently also creates fragility, as redundant processes also serve as an emergency option to react to unexpected events. The complexity dilemma is that even from the interaction of simple rules can arise unmanageably complex structures and processes.
Cyclic phenomena or outdated references?
Companies have come a long way since the beginning of the industrialization. From the top-heavy hierarchical bureaucratic behemoths of the Taylorist/Fordist age of the early 20th century, modern organizations evolved into the lean and agile profit center structure – of the late 90s? Seriously, reading the book gave me the impression that there is a lack of recent literature citations. I did the data and it turn out that my feeling was completely right...
...
May 25, 2021
Ah well - my second book from this author. Although it is a interesting mix of a bit of fun and many business ideas, I still just can give it a three.
I am none the wiser after reading it, the best part was the info about qwertz and the typewriter industry.
I am none the wiser after reading it, the best part was the info about qwertz and the typewriter industry.
November 29, 2015
Absolute Leseempfehlung für "New Work"- und "Unternehmendemokratie"-Romantiker. Schnell lesbar, systemtheoretisch, gut formuliert. Danke für dieses wichtige Buch. Das dürfte auch noch in 20 Jahren verlegt werden (die Erstausgabe erschien 1994, die aktuelle 6. Auflage 2015).
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews