Shadow Organizations

In this book, Stefan Kühl shows that there is a trend towards hyperformalization, especially in agile organizations. This happens because, in order to achieve the dismantling of hierarchy and the softening of departmental boundaries, agile organizations are producing formal role descriptions to an unprecedented degree. This over-bureaucratization results in a whole series of unintended side effects that can clog up organizations. As Stefan Kühl shows with numerous examples from corporate practice, organizations form shadow hierarchies and shadow departments in order to retain their ability to act.