Ricardo Semler experimented with this at Semco Partners and wrote a book about it which I read in the 90ies. It was called "The other way" in it's Norwegian edition. In English I think it is this one "Maverick! The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace". It was a about self run teams in and corporation democracy.
All though the article has an 100 percent correct description on how things can be in an organization, I do believe that what he describes is a badly run corporation, not a well run. I also believe that the way Semler reorganized his organization is an anomaly. It seldom works this way.
People, us all included, does not work well in cooperation when we are in large groups, without some sort of guidance. In corporations the most effecient guidance are incentives. That said, setting the right incentives and be able to adjust as you go is a very hard task. There is no "one solution" to how this is done, but if you succeed you usually reach your targets.
I don't trust someone claiming to have run a heterodox org as much as someone claiming to have worked in one, like Creo sister comment threads.
Any incentive turns perverse, and incentives are not how our zillion cells are prompted to make our bodies work. Incentives work to an extent, but have inevitable adverse effects.
All though the article has an 100 percent correct description on how things can be in an organization, I do believe that what he describes is a badly run corporation, not a well run. I also believe that the way Semler reorganized his organization is an anomaly. It seldom works this way.
People, us all included, does not work well in cooperation when we are in large groups, without some sort of guidance. In corporations the most effecient guidance are incentives. That said, setting the right incentives and be able to adjust as you go is a very hard task. There is no "one solution" to how this is done, but if you succeed you usually reach your targets.