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GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing

Publication ,  Journal Article
Burton, RM; Håkonsson, DD; Nickerson, J; Puranam, P; Workiewicz, M; Zenger, T
Published in: Journal of Organization Design
December 1, 2017

In this edition of the organizational zoo series, we take a closer look at an interesting organization design case—GitHub, a software company from California. Similar to Valve, the subject of the previous article in the series (Puranam and Håkonsson, J Organ Design 4: 2–4, 2015) GitHub is used to delegate the choice of projects and project allocation to its workers, fitting the recent trend in running organizations without bosses. The interesting fact about GitHub is that after years of praising its own unorthodox organizational structure, the company suddenly decided to abandon it for something much more traditional. We asked several renowned organization scientists to share their thoughts on this interesting case and discuss what we can learn from it.

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Published In

Journal of Organization Design

DOI

EISSN

2245-408X

Publication Date

December 1, 2017

Volume

6

Issue

1
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Burton, R. M., Håkonsson, D. D., Nickerson, J., Puranam, P., Workiewicz, M., & Zenger, T. (2017). GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing. Journal of Organization Design, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-017-0020-3
Burton, R. M., D. D. Håkonsson, J. Nickerson, P. Puranam, M. Workiewicz, and T. Zenger. “GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing.” Journal of Organization Design 6, no. 1 (December 1, 2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-017-0020-3.
Burton RM, Håkonsson DD, Nickerson J, Puranam P, Workiewicz M, Zenger T. GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing. Journal of Organization Design. 2017 Dec 1;6(1).
Burton, R. M., et al. “GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing.” Journal of Organization Design, vol. 6, no. 1, Dec. 2017. Scopus, doi:10.1186/s41469-017-0020-3.
Burton RM, Håkonsson DD, Nickerson J, Puranam P, Workiewicz M, Zenger T. GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing. Journal of Organization Design. 2017 Dec 1;6(1).

Published In

Journal of Organization Design

DOI

EISSN

2245-408X

Publication Date

December 1, 2017

Volume

6

Issue

1