Cubicle culture can be so confining that it's become a cliche. A line from the cult film classic Office Space sums it up: "I have eight different bosses right now," grouses bleary-eyed tech company employee Peter Gibbons. "So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation. It's not to be hassled." Today, the hierarchical hassles of the modern workplace are starting to fade, with a cultural move toward flat or "bossless" offices. In downtown Ann Arbor, Mich., the software company Menlo Innovations takes the flat office to its extreme — at Menlo, there are two co-founders and a CEO, but the team takes charge of budgeting, hiring, firing and making decisions on how to serve the company's clients. "If you look at a baseball team in the field, no one would say, hey who does the pitcher report to, who does the catcher report to? People who really understand baseball would say, well, they have a role to play but their real purpose is to win the game.

To be on the field with each other and trust each other to know how to play," says Rich Sheridan, who co-founded Menlo in 2002 and is the company's CEO. The bossless atmosphere is reflected in the office layout. Blue Ombre Short Prom DressMenlo is headquartered just blocks away from the University of Michigan in 17,000 square feet of bright, open space. Relocation Assistance CompaniesIt's so open that the company's 50 employees (and a few of their dogs) work at long tables without walls, cubicles or offices. California King Duvet Covers OnlineThey code and design computer programs, but with a togetherness that makes it look more like a cafeteria lunchroom than a traditional workplace. "I'm sitting out in the room with everyone else," Sheridan points out.

"I get no special treatment; there's no corner office." That layout is by design. Sheridan says obliterating layers of management can lead to faster decision-making — and more important, motivated and empowered employees. At Menlo, the whole office, or sometimes subcommittees, decide who gets hired and who gets fired. Promotions, raises and budgeting are all decided by the team. The company's emphasis on transparency extends to details like the budget, which is posted on the wall for everyone to see. Email communication is frowned upon in favor of face-to-face talking. "We've seen more of a trend toward flattening organizations," says Stephen Courtright, a Texas A&M business professor who specializes in studying self-governing offices. He says because the tech industry needs to adapt quickly and competition for the best employees is fierce, giving employees freedom helps them move much faster. "Those industries are just unstable, rapidly changing, and they are trying to harness creativity and innovation.

So it is that speed of the technology environment that has prompted organizations to rethink the way they structure the organization," Courtright says. But it doesn't fix all problems. The gaming company Valve also boasts of being bossless and has gotten a lot of attention for it. But Jeri Ellsworth, a former programmer at Valve Corp., said her time there "felt a lot like high school." "What I learned from Valve is that I don't think it works," Ellsworth told The Grey Area podcast and reported in Wired magazine. "I think that if you give complete latitudes with no checks and balances, it's just human nature [employees] are gonna try to minimize the work they have to do and maximize the control they have." At Menlo, the employees say the culture prevents that. "It really doesn't happen that way," says Menlo developer Eric Schreffler. "And that's partly because of the people who were here from the beginning." As more companies shift to flatter structures, Courtright says workers should decide what rewards you're seeking at work when making job decisions.

"In a flat organization, moving up the chain of command is not the reward for performing well, because in a flat organization there's not a big chain of command to climb up. Basically the reward in a flat organization is being able to work on new and challenging creative tasks," Courtright says. And that newness is what keeps Menlo's Lisa Ho coming back. "We say we're a learning organization, so we're always learning and trying new things, which is very cool," she says. Email this case study to a friend Invigorating a Company Culture from Within Dr. Reddy’s, a 32-year-old global pharmaceutical company headquartered in India, was growing at a rapid pace. Over the years, the company’s main focus had been on producing affordable generic medication. But with more than seven distinct business units operating in 100 countries and more than 20,000 employees, there was an urgent need to identify a core, unifying purpose, one that would articulate a set of shared values and align leaders on key business decisions and goals.

G.V. Prasad, the company’s CEO, knew that the vision had to be simple and elegant – an emotional drive that every employee across the company could relate to and act upon. G.V. Prasad partnered with IDEO to home in on the focus that would bring about alignment. Over the course of several months, Dr. Reddy’s team worked with IDEO to learn about the needs of everyone, from shop floor workers to scientists, external partners and investors. Together, they defined and distilled the essence of the company, paring it down to four simple words that center on the patient: Good health can’t wait. The simplicity of these words belie their power. According to G.V. Prasad, the newly articulated purpose has resonated across the company, changing the whole culture of the organization. The idea of infusing a sense of urgency and nimbleness to their systems as a means of serving their customers has had a direct application to almost every corner of the business. Employees connect the message to their own experience, and each of the different business units are now moving towards a common goal.

The new mandate unlocked ideas for a series of new initiatives. From designing more human-centered packaging that helps patients better understand their instructions, to creating a digital platform that helps employees serve customers more effectively, to designing an exclusive knowledge service for doctors, the new ideas were first prototyped in key markets, then expanded to the global organization. All along the way, the CEO and company leaders put front and center their new purpose, what it meant to them, what was already achieved, and the impact they wished to create for patients and partners. IDEO designers established a set of new brand guidelines, including identity and experience guidelines that clarified what was expected of employees, as well as benchmarks for customer experience. “Good Health Can’t Wait” has become a powerful rallying cry for every employee. It has made clear that the company is in the business of serving patients, not just creating products, no matter how innovative or affordable.

This has given new meaning to employees, from frontline sales representatives to shop floor personnel to scientists. Articulating the purpose has empowered employees to take risks and try new things. The marketing department has refocused its efforts on finding solutions that improve patients’ consistent use of their medications. And motivated by the idea that patients could no longer wait for a cure, employees from different parts of the company are finding inventive ways of bringing new products to market in record time. The moment we anchored our purpose in outcomes—good health, and not on activity or products, the purpose became real.Raju Komaravolu, Senior Director & Head of Strategic Marketing, Dr. Reddy’s The articulated purpose has not only motivated and unified employees, it’s also been a boon for business. The patient-centric packaging has helped boost sales, and has inspired new strategic directions, including new patient counseling and financing services.