Valve Steams Ahead
Introduction
The 21st century rapidly changed society putting forth new opportunities and demands in a quest for a better future. With these elaborate changes particularly regarding the current sophistication of technology, the workplace has also been propelling forward particularly focusing on the way in which they are governed. An organisational structure is the process of arranging people and other resources to work together to accomplish a goal (Schermerhorn, 2011). However, what happens when there is no organisational structure? This is the theme of the “Valve Steams Ahead” case study in which this report is assessing. Using peer-reviewed sources and other research, an analysis will be made of Valve Software’s operations regarding their flat, unstructured organisational structure. This report will examine Valve’s emergent and spontaneous (Schermerhorn, 2012) structure particularly focusing on the recruitment of new staff and the training development of these staff. Once the issues have been identified in the critical analysis, recommendations will be made as to how Valve can best resolve these issues whilst maintaining their informal organisational structure.
Problem Identification
Valve Software has a team of 300 employees that all work together to create some of the most popular computer games in the world (Klemke). With the astonishing achievements and popularity of their games, it comes as great surprise to many to find out that Valve does not have an organisational structure and in fact refer to themselves as an organic and flat structure. An organic structure is a set of unofficial relationships among an organisation’s members (Schermerhorn, 2011). Basically, there is no structure and all hires must be capable of running the company, which is essentially the job of every Valve employee (Valve Steams Ahead, case study). There are no managers or bosses (Suddath, 2012) and the company states that they are averse to hierarchy or codified divisions
The 21st century rapidly changed society putting forth new opportunities and demands in a quest for a better future. With these elaborate changes particularly regarding the current sophistication of technology, the workplace has also been propelling forward particularly focusing on the way in which they are governed. An organisational structure is the process of arranging people and other resources to work together to accomplish a goal (Schermerhorn, 2011). However, what happens when there is no organisational structure? This is the theme of the “Valve Steams Ahead” case study in which this report is assessing. Using peer-reviewed sources and other research, an analysis will be made of Valve Software’s operations regarding their flat, unstructured organisational structure. This report will examine Valve’s emergent and spontaneous (Schermerhorn, 2012) structure particularly focusing on the recruitment of new staff and the training development of these staff. Once the issues have been identified in the critical analysis, recommendations will be made as to how Valve can best resolve these issues whilst maintaining their informal organisational structure.
Problem Identification
Valve Software has a team of 300 employees that all work together to create some of the most popular computer games in the world (Klemke). With the astonishing achievements and popularity of their games, it comes as great surprise to many to find out that Valve does not have an organisational structure and in fact refer to themselves as an organic and flat structure. An organic structure is a set of unofficial relationships among an organisation’s members (Schermerhorn, 2011). Basically, there is no structure and all hires must be capable of running the company, which is essentially the job of every Valve employee (Valve Steams Ahead, case study). There are no managers or bosses (Suddath, 2012) and the company states that they are averse to hierarchy or codified divisions