The world’s leading video game software company, Valve, has turned into an ideal example with basically no hierarchy. The company has 400 employees and a different hierarchical order that involves completely self-allocated time, without any manager. The organizational form is described in the case and in the employee handbook, which is accompanied with the case. Each of the members has the freedom to move between “cabals” (teams) all the time, as their desks have the wheels. Now this happens so often that the company has developed a homegrown following application to permit companions to find each other. A special recruitment tool that supports the hiring of T-shaped people, and an absolutely peer-base performance evaluation and stack ranking.
In 2013, Valve diversified inthe hardware industry as the demand of customer rapidly increasing. Now, whether the existing organizational form would be suitable for this new industry, and if it is not so, then whether they should prefer strategy over structure or structure over strategy. Thus, the case evaluates the students’ skills and understanding regarding a strategic and organizational challenge, and Valve’s resolve, with respect to the harmoniousness between their strategic direction and organizational model.
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