Adhocracy

What is adhocracy?

Adhocracy is a way of organizing specialized work around flexible teams. People coordinate by working things out together, rather than relying mainly on formal procedures and a fixed chain of command.

In Mintzberg’s description (1980), trained specialists work in small teams, adjust to one another, and share selected decision-making responsibilities. This structure is associated with complex, changing environments.

Adhocracy Structure and Culture

Cross-functional teams can bring different kinds of expertise to a new problem. Teams may form around projects and change as the work changes. An adhocracy culture emphasizes this flexibility and willingness to experiment. That can support experimentation and innovation, but it also creates questions about continuity, responsibility, and how separate projects fit the organization’s longer-term aims.

The flexibility comes with a coordination problem: people still need to know who can decide what and how their work fits together. Adhocracy distributes authority selectively; it does not give everyone unrestricted control. Whether it suits an organization depends on the work being done, rather than flexibility being automatically better than hierarchy.