Out With the Old, in With the New: Alternative Management Methods

The top-down management style still continues to dominate modern day business structures worldwide. But what is the most powerful at the moment may not be in the near future. The behavior and beliefs of humanity are always in a state of flux. New ideas will always take root in the minds of people, overthrowing old ones.

This means that the current decision making method of letting the higher ups call the shots might be replaced soon. Even in the past, people have thought of new styles of managing corporations and teams.

Sociocracy is one of these. It has some socialistic tendencies, as it values equity and harmony among its participants. These participants are members of circles, which meet to discuss and vote on policies and processes. Decisions are made with the consent of all circle members that will be affected.

Holacracy is another, more recent creation that has adopted principles from sociocracy and revised them. An example of such changes is the removal of consent-based decision making. The welfare of the entire organization and its processes takes precedence over the preferences of an individual.

One thing that we can note from sociocracy and holacracy is that they are less selfish than top down management. It allows all participants in corporations, organizations or even communities to have a voice. These new methodologies have the potential to change not only the business structural norm, but how society works as a whole.

For many companies, however, the implementation of these alternatives is still at an experimental stage. Some have even dropped the management models. But we can attribute this to the fact that we are more accustomed to the traditional, more hierarchal methods.

We also need to change our mindsets, of  the way we see ourselves, others, and the world. By assessing ourselves, we can assess others and how to cooperate better. Therefore, we will be able to apply sociocracy or holacracy more efficiently and harmoniously.