1. Is a flat structure right for all companies and people?

2. What would have Wilfer done if she had been in Harmon’s place?
3. What should she do about her situation at EBC?

I am going to use the USC-CT model to address the different issues

presented in this case. Once I will have provided a strong analysis of the
case, I will individually address the questions. However, in the case
analysis through the USC-CT model I will explore the best solutions for
the company, which already will present what I think Wilfer could have
done in Harmon’s place in order to allow EBC to be a true flat
organization.
Uncover
The Ethical Business Companies shows an array of circumstances
that may be the potential cause of the difficulties in managing the
company.
 John Harmon is not being an effective leader. He does not practice what he preaches. He proclaims his
company to be transparent and open, supporting a flat structure, but he has a private office and does not
call meeting to discuss the changes in the company but just to announce what he has decided and what is
going to happen. He is in the hidden quadrant of the Johari Window, because he does not disclose himself
with the employee. He keeps the “Passion Room” as a meeting room while instead it is his office (page 6),
he does not explain his decisions. According to the Vroom-Jago Leader-Participaion Model he most
probably is an Autocratic I leader, because he makes the decisions by himself using the available
information, without consulting with the employees (page 7). Harmon is not a communication champion:
he is neither frank nor straightforward, he never clarifies the meetings purpose and he does not answer
the question made during them (page 7). He does not link action to his vision: he is a dreamer, but he is not
a doer, he does not implement his ideas. He is the first one to not follow the company culture, weakening it.
As a result, the public image of the company does not respect what really happens in the company, and the
employees make fun of the core value of the company culture (page 6). He does not set the example,
because he does not show humility and will, the two key elements for a leader to be executive according to
the Level 5 hierarchy.
 There is no equity. Some departments are asked to double their results while others need to add only a
2% to meet the goals settled by Harmon (page 7). The comparison between input and output from the
employees is not equal, and as explained by the Equity Theory, employee do not feel motivated. The
reward system is unfair, because the flatter organization involves a flatter compensation plan, which is no
longer competitive in the industry and the collective goals have replaced individual metrics, so the bonus
are not competitive too (page 8). As a consequence, according to Expectancy Theory, people are
disappointed and not committed to the achievement of the goals. Moreover, even if the company’s
manifesto clearly states a horizontal structure where everybody has the same opportunities, the elections
are not democratic and only members of the senior leadership can be selected for the committee (page 5),
without any explanation given by Harmon.
 People cannot be retained accountable. Even though in the meeting between Wilfer and all the project
managers everybody contributed to the list of what needed to be done, nobody offered to do anything.
They concentrated on the problems instead of the solutions (page 8), they are not a resource. Moreover,
when Wilfer felt uncomfortable while “the employees formerly known as analysts” (page 6), she did not
say anything because she did not think it was her job to instill respect towards the Company Culture in her
fellow employees. In an environment like this, it is very easy to start the Blame Game, where people finger
point each other, do not take initiative and narrowly define their job to only a specific task. Because of the
inefficient reward system, Social loafing is encouraged. People do not have a team mentality yet, so the
group reward is not working.
  The employees do not agree and/or accept the company culture. It does not motivate employees to high
performance; the system and procedure do not reinforce the organizational mechanisms. There is not a
widespread consensus upon the culture and people have lost trust in the system because it was not
working. Some of the hygiene factors of the Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory are not satisfied; for example,
the company policy is unclear, people are looking for more strict supervision, have difficulties in socializing
because the roles are ambiguous and the career path are unintelligible, nobody even knows what the
different sections of the company are. Moreover, slogans are inefficient and people make fun of them (page
6).
 The roles are not clearly defined. The three groups of employees (Support, Seek, and See) do not have a
firm definition, and the employees do not know what their categories stands for (page 4). As a
consequence, new employees do not to whom they should ask for information about the company and
their job, as it happened to Wilfer during her first day at EBC (page 3). This leads to a lack of Hard
Power sources in the organization.
 The meetings do not have a clear purpose stated in advance. The names given to the meetings confuse
people, who feel like wasting their time, and do not listen to the speaker (page 7).

Select
I think that the root cause of all the problems stated above is
Harmon’s deceiver behavior. All the issues come from his avoidance to
disclose himself and the reasons of his decisions. His hypocrisy has
probably led people to leave, or even worse he forced them to leave
because they did not agree with his vision. He does not share
information; he proclaims it after he decided it by himself. He is not
implementing a Positive leadership attitude; he never has an affirmative
bias and does not facilitate intrinsic goodness. He dreams about a
Web structure for his organization, but still acts according to a Set graph.
In a flat company with a web structure, everybody would be a manager
with decision power. However, in reality, Harmon stays away from the
action, above all the employees, making the decisions by himself.