Hierarchy to Self Management: How Unmoored Managers Cope with Transformation of Organizational Form

Abstract

Self-management has become an attractive option in the range of available organizational structures for companies seeking innovative and entrepreneurial outcomes. Thus, some firms existing previously as hierarchies are converting to more non-hierarchical structures whose core tenet is self-management. A yet unanswered question in the literature on post-bureaucratic organization is: How do managers, as a significantly impacted category of organizational actors, cope with this organizational transformation to self-management? We conducted an in-depth field study in a large US-based IT firm undergoing such transformation. Our results reveal a range of emergent behaviors of managers “unmoored” by the organization’s conversion to self-management. We detail these emergent behaviors and build a temporal process model. Our findings have implications for researchers investigating self-management phenomenon and practitioners seeking effective self-management implementation.