Valve's Way: Vayward, Visionary, or Voguish?

Abstract

Puranam and Håkonsson (2015) challenge us to ponder what we as organization design theorists make of Valve’s way (see also Jeppesen, 2008). We believe that Valve, in spite of its radical vision, does not represent a challenge to fundamental organization design theory and that it is questionable to what extent it represents a new blueprint for organization design, despite it being consistent with an “egalitarian Zeitgeist” (Puranam, 2014). In fact, managerial authority may be of increasing importance rather than the opposite (Guadalupe, Li, & Wulf, 2015). Thus, Valve is, and will remain, an outlier, albeit a voguish one.