Otago Polytechnic to reduce staff to 150?

Okay, I admit it. This was an attempt to grab your attention. I've emailed the student population to let them know about my continuing contribution to our Learning Centre from offshore in Japan (who says that the L.C. hasn't changed in donkey's years?). I fear, however, that a global email to staff would've got overlooked. Hence this ploy to 'hook' you.

Gotcha!

Nevertheless, I'm not joking about a staff of 150. According to the British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, humans have evolved to work best in groups of no more than 150 people in order to have a genuine social relationship. And that has implications for the workplace.

Gore Associates, an American company that always makes the list of the best companies to work for, limits its size to 150 staff. Here's how they operate:

1. Instead of bosses they have sponsors
2. They have no organization charts, no budgets, no elaborate strategic plans
3. All salaries are determined collectively

What limiting their size does is ensures that everyone knows each other. The company operates by peer pressure (a much more motivating thing than a boss). New ideas and information flow far more easily within the organization, and it develops what is termed a highly effective institutional transactive memory.

Something to think about. And to read about too; I'll forward you the scan of the relevant chapter from the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell if you ask me to. You'll note that I haven't APA referenced it :-)