Meritocracy And Hierarchy

Meritocracy and Hierarchy are two forms of working cultures in the modern business society. The hierarchy management style is more frequently seen in companies compared to the meritocracy style, while the latter is a representative symbol of the working environment of Silicon Valley in the USA.

According to the dictionary, meritocracy is a society or social system in which people get status or rewards because of what they achieve, rather than because of their wealth or social status. While an hierarchy is a system of organizing people into different ranks or levels of importance, for example in society or in a company. In general, the biggest difference between meritocracy and hierarchy is the element they emphasize on: one is the individual competences, and the other one is the status and ranks in the company.

These two working cultures have their pros and cons. As for meritocracy, its advantages lie mainly in its principle of “Performance is rewarded.” With this idea borne in mind, employees tend to work harder in order to prove that they are capable of better performances and that they deserve better things. This ensures naturally an atmosphere where everyone is trying their best to bring out their best. Meritocracy has a bigger possibility of discovering the potential in the employees compared with a hierarchy system. In addition, the fact that people get rewards or promotions according to their performances ensures fairness among the competitions between employees, so that the employees are more motivated and eager to work harder. In the end, all of these advantages mentioned above result eventually in the rapid development of the company.

Even though meritocracy may seem like a very good system, it does have its disadvantages. There are in the contemporary society some phenomena that go against meritocracy but still needed. For instance, certain jobs are specific gender/language/racial-oriented. When working in a Chinese restaurant, it will be more authentic to have Chinese workers rather than other races, in order to make the restaurant theme seem more together. It’s the same when a French restaurant is full of Chinese waiters, the guests will absolutely feel really weird. Besides, in a pure meritocracy working culture, the competition is very intense and the atmosphere can become hostile. This kind of environment makes the handicapped/disabled unable to compete on even ground with those more fortunate.

When it comes to the hierarchy system, the advantages and disadvantages are as follows. First of all, in an hierarchical structure, there is clear chain of command. Employees know to whom they report and who reports to them and the sets of responsibilities are clearly generated according to different ranks in the company, thus clear lines of communication are established. Employees get tasks from their direct managers and communicate directly with them. Step by step, rank by rank, the strict orders lead to a more efficient and clearer working system. Secondly, an hierarchy system brings out clear paths of promotions. As most employees aim at advancing in their careers, hierarchical structure offers very clear advancement paths, that is to say, the employees know exactly where to go when it comes to promotion, they know where the path leads and where it ends. As consequences, they have a clearer view and determination in their career path. Thirdly, managers

...