Valve is a unique company with no traditional hierarchy. In business school, I read a very interesting Harvard Business Review article on the subject. Unfortunately it’s locked behind a paywall, but this is Google AI’s summary of the article which I confirm to be true from what I remember:

According to a Harvard Business Review article from 2013, Valve, the gaming company that created Half Life and Portal, has a unique organizational structure that includes a flat management system called "Flatland". This structure eliminates traditional hierarchies and bosses, allowing employees to choose their own projects and have autonomy. Other features of Valve's structure include:

Self-allocated time: Employees have complete control over how they allocate their time
No managers: There is no managerial oversight
Fluid structure: Desks have wheels so employees can easily move between teams, or "cabals"
Peer-based performance reviews: Employees evaluate each other's performance and stack rank them
Hiring: Valve has a unique hiring process that supports recruiting people with a variety of skills

[–] menemen@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

A little unsure about the "peer based performance review", sounds like bullying might somehow have to be kept in check. Otherwise this sounds awesome.

[–] rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact: Former employees of Valve have said that is actually a huge problem in the organization and that its organizational structure seems to encourage bullying and high-school style "cliquishness" by design.

[–] daltotron@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I mean it's not as though that's not a problem in normal companies. It's just that normal companies can sort of use the guise of structure or professionalism to harangue whatever employees the clique ends up disliking. The cliques are baked in, in a normal company.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 3 points 5 months ago

Exactly, in a normal structure the bullied employee would just be told they don't fit the culture.

[–] rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 months ago

It can be a problem at other companies, but even worse than average at Valve by virtue of corporate structure. Both of these things can be true.

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