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Your Gift Supports Insightful Research on Innovative Organisations

Your gifts help to support research projects such as Assistant Professor Lee's work on innovative organisational structures
Your gifts help to support research projects such as Assistant Professor Lee's work on innovative organisational structures

Gifts to the INSEAD Fund help advance cutting-edge and important research projects by our faculty, building on the school’s intellectually rich environment and renowned global reputation as a leading business school. Your gifts throughout 2019/2020 have played a crucial role in contributing to substantial real-world impact.

Lead me to freedom: How employees experience less hierarchical organisations

To improve agility and empower employees, organisations are experimenting with less hierarchical and more fluid structures. But what do we know of the actual experience of the employees who work, or have worked, in these new structures? What about the microdynamics that happen at the level of the individuals?

Michael Y. Lee, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, is delving into this highly relevant question that will help to shape thinking on organisational structures of tomorrow. Lee is studying the case of a consulting firm that did away with titles and implemented a strategy to organise itself in a more ‘liberated way’. While consultants were drawn to the firm because of the promise of freedom, they experienced challenges in navigating this non-conventional structure. Lee is exploring the paradoxical tensions between the desire for autonomy and the challenges experienced by the employees.  

Lee’s research explores the dynamics and consequences of decentralised systems and how organisations can facilitate greater self-management without sacrificing coordination. He has been selected in the Radar Class 2020 by Thinkers50 that identifies and ranks extraordinary management and business thinking. Regarding Lee’s work, Thinkers50 stated, “In the world beyond hierarchy, Lee’s work will be a key navigational tool.”

Your gift to Faculty and Research is helping to advance Lee’s researchamong that of others. Says Lee, “This study will shed new light on the nature and challenges of work in increasingly decentralised and less structured settings. Thank you for your valuable support!

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