More and more large companies tend to eliminate job titles over the last few years, claiming that such a move increases employee engagement and potential for cooperation among colleagues, by effectively decentralizing decision-making.
For those who are unaware, this is a practice that has been predominantly used among startups with great success, so at first glance, it appears that larger companies are just trying to simply copy-paste a practice that has worked well for someone else and hope for the best. Like trying to hit an apple sitting on top of someone else’s head, by blind-firing a gun. What are the chances to pop the apple and not the other poor soul’s head?
I may not have worked at a startup yet, but I have worked as an external advisor with many of them and I am aware of the general culture that permeates these types of enterprises. In addition, I’ve had the luck to see the corporate department that I was working in, expanding from a basic core of two-three people, to more than a dozen. More importantly perhaps, I’ve experienced this twice in my life, once as a low-level employee and another by leading a great part of this transformation.
I am writing this because in my experience, a small department, even in the largest of firms, more closely resembles a startup, than an integral part of this large firm.
I remember for example, that when the departments were small, no one really had titles. (We did have our official, corporate titles, but no one ever paid attention, or even remembered them.) We were sitting really close to each other, knew at all times what each one of us was doing (we were often times doing a little bit of everything to support the business line), arranged our annual leaves orally, etc.
All these changed however as the departments got bigger and bigger. Among these changes, were also the titles. They became more “official” and hierarchy was better structured. It only made sense from one point onwards, and we, ourselves, wanted it actually! It helped us better understand where each of us fitted in the team. Even more than us, it helped new joiners get more quickly accustomed to how things worked in the department.
In short, just because someone else is doing something that is working for them, doesn’t mean that we should also blindly follow their lead. Organizational hierarchy is one of those areas. Just imagine visiting an unknown place: A small island where moving around is easy, might actually be better off without road signs blocking your view of the various landmarks. But visiting a large island without road signs on the other hand, wouldn’t help you admire the scenery. It would irritate you for not knowing where to go.