Pair Management and Virtual Hierarchies
Authors: Kulshrestha Gaurav 
Published: January 2017

Hierarchies are essential in an organization for delegation of work among the employees and its normal functioning. The existing organizational hierarchies are good at division of work and keeping the roles of the employees clearly defined but they suffer from problems like: Single point of failure (absence of an employee might significantly disrupt the informa- tion or workflow taking place in a hierarchy). Inability to respond to a newly emerged situation in the absence of the concerned employee.

This paper introduces a new concept called pair management which aims to improve the workflow of an organizational hierarchy without disturbing its original structure. Pairing helps in overcoming the shortcomings of a normal hierarchy by increasing the flexibility and robustness of the hierarchical structure. A pair consists of two employees or managers who cooperate with each other in their work. Pairing involves sharing of information and cooperation between the two partners.

Pairing leads to the formation of virtual hierarchies which act as a cushion to absorb the disturbances arising in the organizational hierarchy. The positive implications of pairing are: Improved work and information flow. Handling the critical situations better. Enrichment of the job of the managers.

However, pairing requires clear role definitions, good coordination, and clear commu- nication protocols, absence of which might lead to: a) Coupling; b) Conflicts; c) Dissolution of the pair.

To avoid these problems, we can choose an optimum degree of pairing and define the roles and communication protocols accordingly. The degree of pairing depends upon: Personal characteristics of the employees. Managerial styles of the employees. Work schedules of the employees. Organizational requirements.

If the degree of pairing is very high, it might lead to coupling or conflicts. On the other hand, less degree of pairing might lead to underutilization of the pair. Deciding upon the degree of pairing involves identifying and analysing two kinds of characteristics of the employees forming the pair. These are: a) S-Factors, i.e., the factors which need to be similar in both the employees; b) D-Factors, i.e., the factors which should be dissimilar.

We need to achieve a balance such that the efficiency of the pair is high and, at the same time, the chances of conflicts are minimum. Low degrees of pairing are safer as they ensure clear role definitions and hence less chances of conflicts.

An analysis of working schedules of four managers is presented in this paper to find out how pairing can help them in improving their work efficiency and managing their work schedules better. This analysis reveals that: Feasibility of pairing and its success also depends on work schedules of the employees. The benefits of pairing can be different for different employees.

Implementation of this concept involves choosing a relevant degree of pairing, defining the roles and communication protocols, observing the effectiveness of the process, and redefining the degree of pairing based upon the inputs from the feedback. This cycle repeats to ensure smooth functioning of the pair. The privilege of varying the degree of pairing makes it very flexible and adds to the feasibility of the concept.

The success of pairing depends on the professionalism shown by the employees and clear role definitions. An organization might start using this concept with safer degrees of pairing and later on move to higher degrees. The concepts and views expressed in this paper can be further analysed to suit the needs of an organization.