Self-Organizing and Decentralizing Work: Enabling Factors, Boundary Conditions and Opportunities

Self-managing organizations (SMOs) are radically decentralized and flat firms that provide high freedom and flexibility to employees. The investigation of self-organizing and decentralizing with SMOs, although not new, has recently gained prominence. Scholarship on this topic is hampered by an overly narrow set of questions and cases. While most research has investigated the (ir)relevance of SMOs and selected outcomes, less research has focused on how self-organizing and decentralizing function and what impacts effectiveness. This panel symposium aims to go beyond the current dialog by focusing on enabling factors, boundary conditions and opportunities. We include six short presentations that cover distinct areas of emerging, rigorous research. Presentations will be followed by discussions involving the audience. Ultimately, we will take stock of key factors and research findings addressing what enables and limits self-organizing and decentralizing the workplace and where opportunities can be found.