Final answer:
Organizational structures can indeed be layered quickly and then flattened in response to changing work demands, with today's workplace requiring agility and flexibility over rigid hierarchy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement is partially true. Organizations often increase their management layers rapidly to cope with growth or complexity, but can also move to flatten their structure quickly in response to the requirement for more agile and flexible work approaches.
Today's workplace demands a faster pace, more problem-solving capabilities, and a flexible approach, which a bureaucratic and layered structure may hinder.
While bureaucracies were useful during the Industrial Revolution for mass production and clear chains of command, in the modern information age, they can decrease productivity and efficiency due to rigidity.
Indeed, with shifts in technology, economics, and globalization, organizations are restructuring to accommodate quicker decision-making and problem-solving through flattened hierarchies and team-based approaches.
Teams bring diverse skills and experiences to address complex tasks, and it's becoming commonplace for roles traditionally seen as hierarchical to engage in collegial relationships to foster innovation and efficiency.
However, the evasion of established bureaucracies does pose challenges as they can cement existing balances of power and are difficult to reorient, akin to 'trying to turn a tanker around mid-ocean.'
Nonetheless, the shift towards team structures and flat organizations is in response to the evolving landscape of work and its demands.