Obsolete Managers: Flat Vs Hierarchical Organisation

Let:
N = Number of levels in an organisation
a = Entry-level age (years)
A = Retirement age (years)
T = Number of years (on average) to move from one level to the next level
Then T = (A - a)/N
Usually a = 25 and A = 60. So T = 35/N. More generally, T is inversely proportional to N.

Let P(Obs) = Probability of the managers' knowledge about the core-work becoming obsolete. Then P(Obs) is proportional to T. So P(Obs) is inversely proportional to N. In a flat organisation, N is low - so P(Obs) is high. In a hierarchical organisation, N is high - so P(Obs) is low. The conventional view is that a flat organisation is good and a hierarchical organisation is bad. But from the point-of-view of the managers becoming obsolete, hierarchical organisations are superior to flat organisations.

Why Managers Are Obsolete

WHY MANAGERS ARE OBSOLETE

An organisation is like a pyramid:
1. It consists of different levels.
2. People at different levels do different types of work.
Specifically:
3. The people at the bottom do the core-work of the organisation.
4. The job of the people at the top is to help/support the bottom-people.
The top-people have moved to the top from the bottom. That is: earlier they were at the bottom – and were doing the core-work of the organisation.

In a static/unchanging world, this model would be perfect:
1. People start at the bottom doing the core-work.
2. As time passes, they move up to the top-levels.
3. They have experience/knowledge about the core-work.
4. With this experience/knowledge, they help/support the bottom-people.
But the problem is the 21st century world is not a static/unchanging world – it is a dynamic/fast-changing world. And how we do a work is a function of the world/environment. So when the environment changes, how we do a work also changes.

Thus some time after the bottom-people move to the top (and become top-people), the technology/environment changes – and the top-people's knowledge/experience about the core-work becomes obsolete. They know about doing the core-work when the technology/environment was in its previous state. But they do not know anything about doing the core-work NOW – when the technology/environment is in a completely new state. But still, they keep giving orders to the bottom-people – who actually know how to do the core-work NOW (with the technology/environment in its current state).

Therefore managers (top-people) are inherently obsolete. And the traditional management model / organisation structure is also inherently obsolete.

Laws Of System Complexity, Output Quality, Environment Dynamism And Operating Intelligence

LAWS OF SYSTEMS

1. Law of system complexity and operating intelligence:
The intelligence required to run a system is proportional to the system's complexity.

2. Law of system complexity and output quality:
For a given level of intelligence of the people running a system, the quality of the system's output is inversely proportional to the system's complexity.

3. Law of environment dynamism and operating intelligence:
The intelligence required to run a system is proportional to the dynamism of the system's environment.

4. Law of environment dynamism and output quality:
For a given level of intelligence of the people running a system, the quality of the system's output is inversely proportional to the dynamism of the system's environment.

Pranab Mukherjee: The Last Liberal

Which was the defining point of Pranab Mukherjee's long and illustrious political career?
A. 31 Oct 1984 – Congress Party made Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister, pushing aside its senior-most leader Pranab-ji
B. 22 May 2004 – Sonia Gandhi made Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, pushing aside their senior-most leader Pranab-ji
C. 25 Jul 2012 – Pranab-ji became the 13th President of India, the highest office of our Republic
D. 7 Jun 2018 – Pranab-ji attended the valedictory function of RSS's training camp at its Nagpur headquarters
Cynics will say A and B. Most people will say C. But for me, it was D.

Liberals see and treat the RSS as an untouchable Hindu fascist organisation. Yet Pranab Mukherjee, who had occupied the highest office of our Republic and was fully aware of its sanctity, attended the RSS's most important annual event as its Chief Guest. Why? Because he knew that in a society, people will have different viewpoints and the only way to run a society is to be open-minded and try to understand other viewpoints. In that sense, he was a true liberal – an open-minded man who engaged constructively with people he disagreed with. In fact, he was India's last liberal – and the people who call themselves liberals can definitely learn a thing or two from him.

A great son of Mother India has left us. May God give strength to his family . . .