Organizational Design at iQmetrix: The Holacracy Decision

Description

Software development company iQmetrix Software Development Corporation (iQmetrix), headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, had enjoyed success and growth for over two decades. In July 2017, iQmetrix was confronted with the challenge of managing this growth while maintaining its organizational culture as a non-hierarchical, innovative, and open place to work—a place where the best ideas could come from anywhere and where people shared ideas openly and transparently with all. iQmetrix was considering the implementation of holacracy, an organizational design based on the fluid structuring of roles and teams and broadly shared leadership. As the company’s five executives prepared to meet, they needed to consider whether the organization could adopt such a radical organizational form and whether this would foster the continued success of the firm.

Learning Objective

This case can be used at undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels to teach concepts of organizational design, organizational culture, and organizational change. The case can be used in courses on organizational behaviour, leadership, and strategy. The case describes the thought process and steps leading up to the adoption of a radical new organizational design. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following: ·Evaluate how well an organization’s structure and design fits with its strategic objectives. ·Assess the suitability of a new organizational design to solve problems within an existing organizational culture. ·Describe the process of moving an organization from a traditional design to something less familiar and less well defined.

Keywords

Organizational change Organizational structure