What is adhocracy culture?

Born from the Latin word ‘ad hoc’, commonly used in English to mean unplanned or hastily created for a specific purpose, the term adhocracy was first coined in 1968 by organisational consultant Warren Bennis in his book The Temporary Society. Two years year, it was popularised in Future Shock by writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, an enthusiast of the digital revolution from its earliest beginnings. Today, adhocracy culture remains strongly associated with the tech sector, among others. At its core, adhocracy culture is an organisational style that is democratised and future-focused and rewards employees who think and operate in uncoventional ways. 

The three pillars of adhocracy culture are:

• Flexibility
• Creativity
• Innovation

What are the hallmarks of this style?

Because it’s such a distinctive style of organising, it can be easy to spot when another company primarily follows adhocracy culture. Here are some of the qualities and behaviours prevalent under this style:

• Decentralised leadership
• Highly adaptable and flexible
• Lack of formal structure and flattened hierarchy
• Heavy reliance on technology and automation
• Actions often spontaneous and/or ephemeral
• Decisions made organically
• Collaboration encouraged
• Highly adept at problem-solving
• Risk-taking employees
• Productivity prioritised
• Employees given plenty of autonomy

Meta is an example of a large company with a predominantly adhocratic style, turning to tech solutions and innovations in every corner of the business. One instance was its push to shift employee interactions into the virtual reality space called the Metaverse. Another example is Spotify, whose decentralised leadership sees cross-functional teams called Squads handling each facet of the business in their own, creative ways.

Please note that none of the companies, institutions or organisations mentioned in this article are affiliated with Indeed.

Related: Ways to promote creativity and innovation in the workplace

Where does adhocracy fit into organisational culture?

To see what sets adhocracy apart and help you decide if it’s the right choice for you, let’s review three other, prominent organisational styles.

1. Clan culture

The clan culture model prioritises connection and relationships. Strong teamwork skills are highly valued, employees are considered family and friendships between employees are encouraged. Trust is high among staff who are given the freedom to complete their work with minimal supervision. Small or family-run businesses and the hospitality industry are places where clan culture is often found.

2. Market culture

While clan culture is internally focused, market culture looks externally, prioritising customer satisfaction, reputation and profits. Industry trends and consumer habits drive work practices, and productivity is highly valued. It’s a structured environment where employees are given clear objectives and expectations and are often monitored accordingly. Market culture is common in the retail sector.

3. Hierarchy culture

Hierarchy culture is the most traditional of the organisational models. Its values are rooted in authority, stability and accountability. Companies favouring this style tend to have many levels of management and expectations for employees are clear, with plenty of monitoring. Instead of being encouraged to innovate, employees are motivated by the potential for advancement or other rewards like bonuses. This model is often found in large, heritage companies and in the financial sector.

Advantages of adhocracy culture

Its open-ended nature and focus on innovation make adhocracy culture a popular choice in the digital age. Let’s look at some of the advantages that it can provide to your company.

• Empowers employees and encourages creativity: By giving your employees more autonomy and trust, they can feel empowered to make decisions and bring fresh ideas to the table. In adhocracy culture, innovation is prized and rewarded accordingly. This incentivises employees to think outside the box and collaborate with one another to come up with new concepts.
• Increases employee engagement and satisfaction: With active encouragement, regular feedback and a focus on collaboration, employees can feel more engaged at work and like they are an integral part of the business’s success. Feeling valued and developing strong relationships with coworkers are two key metrics when measuring employee satisfaction.
• Attracts top talent: The most talented personnel across a diverse range of industries are often the ones who innovate, take risks and do things differently. These people typically thrive under adhocracy culture and moulding your business around this organisational style can help you recruit them.
• Speeds up decision-making: One of the key benefits of adhocracy culture is its ability to slash red tape. When your employees can make decisions without navigating layers of bureaucratic process, new ideas and changes can be quickly implemented.
• Boosts agility: With minimal rules and regulations in place and the ability to make decisions quickly, adhocracy allows your company to adapt to changes in the industry and the world at large with ease. Having a staff filled with original thinkers can also help you meet challenges and weather unforeseen storms confidently.
• Can foster rapid growth: Adhocracy is a growth-focused culture, removing many of the traditional barriers to innovation, and the outcomes are clear. According to research from the Harvard Business Review, companies with strongly established organisational cultures that prioritise growth enjoy a significant boost to revenue and net income over their competitors.

Disadvantages of adhocracy culture

Adhocracy is not a one-size-fits-all culture. Before deciding whether it’s the right choice for your company, here are a few disadvantages to consider.

• Unstructured, sometimes chaotic work environment: Without a well-defined leadership structure, it can be difficult for your employees to have a full grasp of their responsibilities and meet expectations regarding productivity or project timelines. Some people also require a high level of structure and oversight in order to perform at their best.
• Misunderstandings and communication breakdown can occur: With a flattened hierarchy and a focus on individual initiative, employees can get confused about where to get information and who is responsible for which area of the business. This can lead to delays, overlaps on projects and conflict.
• Greater risk level when implementing changes or new ideas: The speed and agility of adhocracy can mean ideas are green-lighted before all the traditional checks and balances or market research have been completed. If a big idea fails, this could be costly for your company or even impact your reputation.
• Recruitment can be limited to experienced employees: The autonomy of adhocracy requires employees who know what they’re doing and are capable of working independently. Employees with less experience typically need more oversight and mentorship than this structure can provide.
• Costly way of working: Adhocracy is often more expensive than other structures, like clan culture. This is due to the resources that flexibility can demand, like investment in training and technology. Salary costs can also be high due to recruiting more skilled employees and an environment that isn’t suited to entry-level employees.

How to implement adhocracy culture at your company

So, you’ve decided that a primarily adhocratic style is the best fit for your company – let’s break down the steps for implementing this culture.

1. Define your company values and goals

This can serve as a roadmap to implementing the model and help you stay on track, minimising the risk of chaos.

2. Decide which practices of the model to adopt

As we’ve explored, adhocracy culture characteristics are myriad. This makes it vital to adapt the model in a way that best fits your company. Adding some features of other models like clan culture, market culture or hierarchy culture can give you a more balanced model and avoid some of the disadvantages that we looked at.

3. Encourage cross-departmental collaboration

If you have a large company, implementing a new culture can require cross-departmental cooperation and collaboration. You can establish links between departments by hosting brainstorming sessions or forums, dedicating digital communication channels to the changes or even launching cross-team projects.

4. Adjust your hiring practices

Bring your HR department on board with your plans and ensure that they know what types of employees to target for the new culture. Job descriptions may need to be tailored to highlight the qualities that you’re looking for in future hires so that applicants are likely to be a good cultural fit from the start.

5. Promote behaviours that align with adhocracy culture

Among your existing staff, you can encourage the sharing of ideas and changes. Champion new projects and celebrate the innovation behind them, even if they don’t end up being successful. This can help employees feel more confident in taking risks and less anxious of negative consequences if they fail.

6. Reflect and adjust where needed

Once your new culture is in place, seek feedback from staff, stakeholders and even customers to ascertain what is and isn’t working so that you can adjust accordingly.

Related: Tips to manage change in the workplace

Introducing adhocracy culture to your company can be a risky endeavour, especially for businesses that are already well established. But if you carefully research your plans and put measures in place to mitigate risks, you could find yourself quickly reaping the rewards of this organisational model. When innovation, creativity and rapid development are at the forefront of your daily practices and behaviours, growth can be significant, as many top companies in the digital sector and beyond have proven.