Do Flatter Organizations Promote Gender Equality? Bureaucracy, Hierarchy, and Inequality in Financial Services

• In Event: 3253 - Gender, Race, and Organizational Careers

Abstract

Social theorists have long identified bureaucracy as the primary source of social hierarchies and disenfranchisement in the workplace. Recent changes in corporate governance, however, have led to the rise of a flat or horizontal organization structure, i.e., one with little management and bureaucracy. Drawing from qualitative data collected on the U.S. hedge fund industry, I find the organizational logic of a flat firm contributes to the construction and legitimization of social hierarchies in elites workplaces. These findings suggest the flat organization is a discourse rather than a practice. As a discourse, it obscures the authority of the chief executive and legitimizes an organizational structure reinforcing his or her power. I argue that the steep hierarchy and power imbalance found in flat firms allows for the high incomes and tremendous wealth garnered in this industry, as hedge fund managers encounter limited checks and balances at their firms. By examining social inequality in a flat organization, I update intersectional theories of inequality in the workplace, which foreground fixed organizational structures primarily at large bureaucratic firms.

Author

• Megan Tobias Neely, Stanford University