5 ms·

What about informal hierarchies? Do they form in these companies? If not, why not? If they do form, do they cause similar problems to a traditional hierarchy?

by rpedela 13y ago

Ovid 13y ago
Internally Valve forms temporary hierarchies to shepherd projects along and there are also anecdotal accounts from ex-Valve employees that things aren't as "egalitarian" inside as they claim and that some people with seniority have more authority than is claimed. That being said, I've had a hard time verifying any of this stuff and it's rather a given that a company would be reluctant to air their dirty laundry.
- RougeFemme 13y ago
  I would think that, no matter how hard a company tries to hire people of the same mindset, temporary hierarchies would develop - not necessarily along the lines of seniority, but along the lines of who had more experience/comfort/knowledge of best practices, etc. regarding a particular domain, technology, etc. Ideally, the hierarchy would be truly temporary and whatever knowledge/experience/insight caused one person to become the project "shepherd" would be willingly shared amongst the other folks.
bauer 13y ago
I've heard that this is the case. A former Valve employee described it as similar to high school. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/wireduk-valve-jeri-ellsworth/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/wireduk-valve-jeri-ell...
- wisty 13y ago
  IIRC, there's a longer write-up. And a lot of the problems seemed to be partly due to her being a hardware engineer trying to make a next-gen console, embedded in a software company. Some of the issues were specific to Valve's style. I think she had trouble recruiting staff, because Valve wanted her to hire people who could be team players within Valve, and she couldn't find a technician who could also program first-person shooters (unsurprisingly). But more generally, she was hamstrung by Valve not having quite the hardware instincts to manage building a console with the time and resources they gave her.

What about informal hierarchies? Do they form in these companies? If not, why not? If they do form, do they cause similar problems to a traditional hierarchy?

by rpedela 13y ago

What about informal hierarchies? Do they form in these companies? If not, why not? If they do form, do they cause similar problems to a traditional hierarchy?

Ovid 13y ago

Internally Valve forms temporary hierarchies to shepherd projects along and there are also anecdotal accounts from ex-Valve employees that things aren't as "egalitarian" inside as they claim and that some people with seniority have more authority than is claimed. That being said, I've had a hard time verifying any of this stuff and it's rather a given that a company would be reluctant to air their dirty laundry.

RougeFemme 13y ago
I would think that, no matter how hard a company tries to hire people of the same mindset, temporary hierarchies would develop - not necessarily along the lines of seniority, but along the lines of who had more experience/comfort/knowledge of best practices, etc. regarding a particular domain, technology, etc. Ideally, the hierarchy would be truly temporary and whatever knowledge/experience/insight caused one person to become the project "shepherd" would be willingly shared amongst the other folks.

bauer 13y ago

I've heard that this is the case. A former Valve employee described it as similar to high school. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/wireduk-valve-jeri-ellsworth/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/wireduk-valve-jeri-ell...

wisty 13y ago
IIRC, there's a longer write-up. And a lot of the problems seemed to be partly due to her being a hardware engineer trying to make a next-gen console, embedded in a software company. Some of the issues were specific to Valve's style. I think she had trouble recruiting staff, because Valve wanted her to hire people who could be team players within Valve, and she couldn't find a technician who could also program first-person shooters (unsurprisingly). But more generally, she was hamstrung by Valve not having quite the hardware instincts to manage building a console with the time and resources they gave her.