Delayering

A flat organization (also known as horizontal organization or delayering) has an organizational structure with few or no levels of middle management between staff and executives. An organization's structure refers to the nature of the distribution of the units and positions within it, also to the nature of the relationships among those units and positions. Tall and flat organizations differ based on how many levels of management are present in the organization, and how much control managers are endowed with.

In flat organizations, the number of people directly supervised by each manager is large, and the number of people in the chain of command above one is small. A manager in a flat organization possesses more responsibility than a manager in a tall organization because there is a greater number of individuals immediately below who are dependent on direction, help, and support. Moreover, managers in a flat organization rely less on guidance from superiors because the number of superiors above the manager is limited.

Empirical evidence from Ghiselli and Johnson suggests that the amount of independence managers in flat organizations possess as a result of the flat organizational structure satisfies many of their needs in terms of autonomy and self-realization. The idea behind flat organizations is that well-trained workers will be more productive when they are more directly involved in the decision making process, rather than closely supervised by many layers of management.

This structure is generally possible only in smaller organizations or individual units within larger organizations. Having reached a critical size, organizations can retain a streamlined structure but cannot keep a completely flat manager-to-staff relationship without impacting productivity. Certain financial responsibilities may also require a more conventional structure. A company would not have to give a raise or promotion, based on service length but on greater productivity. Also eliminating certain departments from the payroll means saving money. Some companies theorize that flat organizations become more traditionally hierarchical when they begin to be geared towards productivity.

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