CASE STUDY: THE MORNING STAR’S LATTICE STRUCTURE The Morning Star Company, a highly successful and growing $700 million California tomato-processing company, was founded on a philosophy of self-manage

CASE STUDY: THE MORNING STAR’S LATTICE STRUCTURE

The Morning Star Company, a highly successful and growing $700 million California tomato-processing company, was founded on a philosophy of self-management. The company envisions “an organization of self-managing professionals who initiate communication and coordination of their activities with fellow colleagues, customers, suppliers, and fellow industry participants, absent directives from others.” The core of the company’s management philosophy is freedom, which is seen as important to effective coordination. The company believes that freedom allows employees to be drawn to what they really like as opposed to having to do what they’re told, increasing both enthusiasm and performance. Extensive applicant screening for fit with the company’s philosophy and new hire training on self-management helps employees adapt to the autonomy and responsibility of working without a formal boss.

The company’s lattice structure requires a high degree of self-management. Each year every employee writes a personal mission statement that identifies how he or she will contribute to Morning Star’s overall objective of “producing tomato products and services which consistently achieve the quality and service expectations of our customers.” Every employee also negotiates a Colleague Letter of Understanding (CLOU) with the associates most affected by his or her work. The letter creates an operating plan for each employee, spelling out the relevant performance metrics for as many thirty activities. Employees are also personally responsible for acquiring the training, resources, and cooperation necessary to fulfill their role.

As in any organization, disputes arise between employees that must be settled. If an employee believes that someone has not lived up to his or CLOU commitments, the two meet to discuss the issue. If they cannot resolve the matter they choose a trusted internal mediator to hear their views. If the losing party objects to the proposed remedy, a panel of six colleagues assembles and either endorses the mediator’s recommendation or purposes an alternative solution. If that is not accepted, the president brings both employees together and makes a binding decision. Reflecting employees’ commitment to self-management, employee disputes rarely make it to the president.

Questions:

1. How would working for Morning Star be different from working at a traditional, bureaucratic company? What would be the most positive and negative aspects of the experience?

2. Do you think the lattice structure is best for Morning Star? Can you identify another structure that might be more appropriate for the company’s culture of empowerment and self-management?

3. Where do you think this type of lattice structure would be ineffective? What would make this type of structure inappropriate or difficult to implement?

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