
Ask HN: Flat structure or Hierarchy in a company? - zenincognito
Hey HN,<p>Just wanted to know whether your company is a flat structure or is a hierarchy in terms of employees. We are a relatively small 20 people marketing company and are deciding if we should stay flat or become hierarchical.
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sbinthree
Every company has a hierarchy, formal or informal. Further, that hierarchy
almost always gets more formal as the company gets bigger. Based on that, the
question is when, not if. The when comes down to: could you get more done with
more than one person whose chief responsibility is to manage as opposed to
work? If yes, add a second boss, if no then hold off.

One thing companies do that sort of works is to strip managers of certain
formal powers, so that they have to lead without hanging vacation time,
expense approvals, etc. over someone's head. Big tech companies seem to do
this quite a bit, less so in other industries where regional/geographic heads
are king.

A great deal has been written on this, but the reality is that in very few
companies does it make sense to "innovate" on hierarchy. And even then, isn't
it easier for everyone to understand the hierarchy if it is formal? As opposed
to "carefully survey the room and see if the CEO can be challenged on this or
not" and "realize that this is a CTO-only decision so run it by them first to
protect yourself so as to avoid what happened last time you made an
architecture decision on your own" lessons popping up all over the place.

