Merging the Holacracy and the Company Democracy Models into a new disruptive and intellectual capital driven Human Resource Management methodology
Authors: Markopoulos Evangelos , Jordanou Alisia , Vanharanta Hannu 
Published: July 2023

Human resources management (HRM) has been evolved over the years into a dynamic scientific discipline extending the concept to new frontiers beyond its initial administrative and career development purposes. Modern HRM involves advance technology such as Artificial Intelligence Expert and Fuzzy Systems, Cognitive and Behavioural Science and Technologies, Futuristic Interactive Technologies such a Metaverse, and advanced management and leadership theories related to dynamic and non-hierarchical organizational structures and cultures for the identification of the capability and the maturity of each individual, and the transformation of their skills and competencies into human intellectual capital for effective operations, productivity and corporate innovation. Such advancements in HRM must take into consideration the mental state of an employee and the employer as well, at a given situation, circumstances, operations and organizational strategy. Humans perform best, and develop themselves even better under participative and democratic management and leadership plans where opportunities are offered, and their efforts are practically recognised. On the other hand, the degree of democracy and participation needed can be questioned, forming a challenging issue to be solved. The dilemma between productivity and wellbeing becomes stronger over the years in the western world and this is where advanced technologies and management theories are introduced and integrated to better understand human beings and identify their intellectual capital, that can maximize the efficiency and productivity potentiality. This paper addresses this modern HRM challenge by comparing and contrasting the American Holacracy Model with the Nordic Company Democracy Model, two management models, from two different management schools, whose operations directly impact human resource management in terms of staffing, promoting, and career development. The Holacracy model approaches the modern HRM challenge mostly from a direct and short terms operations productivity goals while the company Democracy model approaches the same challenges from an indirect and longer term operations productivity goals. The first model relies more on participative management and leadership while the second on democratic management and leadership. They both utilize human intellectual capital with different methods and for different purposes which at the end identify the capability and maturity of each employee to correspond at dynamic organizational strategies lead from different perspectives and management philosophies. The degree and the effectiveness of the human resources responsiveness indicates the employees and managers that can perform best under each model, the career development activities to be adopted, and the career path that can be followed within the organization. The novel contribution of this paper extends beyond the comparison of the Holacracy and the Company Democracy models from the HRM perspective, but attempts to integrate the operations and philosophy of the two models with the introduction of a new and disruptive model where Holacracy operates within the Company Democracy Model. Such an approach maximizes the benefits of the two models, creates a new dynamic leadership and management type, and introduces a new organizational culture in which everyone can find the right place to perform best, evolve within the organization, and utilize their human intellectual capital which, in both models, is the driving force for efficiency, productivity, personal and organizational development.The research conducted for this paper is based on an extensive literature review, primary research with surveys and interviews but also with the analysis of case studies to indicate the need for the critically analyse the two models and set the base for the proposed integrated model. Furthermore, the paper presents the pre and post-condition for adopting the new model, highlights research limitations, and identifies areas of further research to be conducted for the optimization of the new model and its contribution to the global economy and society.