What is it like when there's no company hierarchy and when everybody makes decisions?

The management of a Viennese company have “abolished” their positions and let the employees run the company. The new concept has so far proven to be successful.

This is the first company in the capital of Austria to become part of the holacracy trend, that is, the New Work trend.

Tele Haase has existed since 1963 and deals in protection and surveillance system electronics, and the entire structure of the company changed five years ago when all forms of hierarchy were removed, along with certain sectors, and all the responsibility transferred from the managerial tier to all 75 employees.

Now everybody is making decisions, whether an intern or a regular worker. Markus Stelzmann is no longer a CEO, but a “director” (as in a movie director) in the new arrangement.

Stelzmann told the economics magazine ECO that their success is based on internal transparency. Despite that, there are limitations.

– Employees don't know what their individual salaries are, but the operations are transparent and that's why everyone can make decisions on behalf of the company – Stelzmann says.

When the experiment started five years ago, not all employees were in favor of this kind of restructuring. Some managers even quit.

Today, managers are replaced by a board which takes care of the business plan, the marketing and the distribution. All workers can choose to be members of the board and work together on strategic issues, and the company's philosophy is that “everyone who enjoys their work does a good job”.

The new concept has proven to be very successful so far.

– Concerns such as Volkswagen, banks and various insurance companies visit us to see for themselves that work can be done in a different way – Stelzmann adds.

holacracy

New Work

Tele Haase

Markus Stelzmann

Volkswagen

Vienna