What is the main reason causing Henry Ford’s assembly line to collapse?

Charles: Jane, I wonder if you could tell us what Ricardo Semler is trying to do?
Jane: Well, sure. Semler wants to introduce real democracy in the workplace. That’s the essence of his philosophy. It’s the end of the party for Henry Ford’s assembly line, he would argue. It’s collapsing slowly. And the giant corporations we knew this century are coming to an end.
Charles: Yes, I think it needs to be stressed that autocracy is the main problem afflicting all these companies. In countries like America, Britain and Brazil people are all very proud of their democratic values in public life, and rightly so. But as Semler himself says, he has yet to see a democratic workplace. We are being held back by a system that doesn’t allow democracy into business or into the workplace…
Jane: If I could just add a related point there concerning bureaucratic structures. Getting rid of seven layers of management bureaucracy is the real key to Semco’s success. This went hand in hand with the introduction of genuine democracy. Managers—including Semler who is one of six ’counsellors’ who rotate in the job of chief executive—are rated regularly by their employees. Every manager gets points from one to a hundred from his staff, anonymously. This happens every six months, when a new budget is set. If managers regularly fall to come up to expectations, they are pushed out One long-serving manager, who used to score 86 out of 100, has dropped down to only 51. What will happen to him is uncertain.
Charles: Surely, this means that the workforce watches the management closely all the time, instead of getting on with their work?
Jane: Yes, but evaluating the boss was just the first step. The big break came when people were allowed to elect their own boss. In Semlers’ view, managers imported from outside the company are bad. Staff who are truly involved in the financial success of the factory are realistic about choosing future bosses.
Charles: Jane, can this system really work?
Jane: Absolutely! And I’ll tell you why. You see, the fact that employees are free to come and go as they like, or work from home, or become a consultant, means that they don’t take advantage of the situation. They recognise the responsibility that comes with controlling their own futures. And as several reports show, it appears to be a happy place to work.
Charles: Semco has got rid of the old pyramid structure of bureaucrats, together with their power symbols. So secretaries and parking spaces have gone. The organisation now consists of three concentric circles, and inner one of six vice-presidents(including Semler), surrounded by a second circle of up to 10 leaders of the business units, and the outer one which includes everyone else—they’re called ’associates’. Just walking around the factory, there’s no way of distinguishing the high earners from the low earners because workers wear what they like and hardly anybody has a desk.
Jane: Of course, the major question people have been asking is whether the Semco experiment is transferable? For instance to other types of company and other countries?
Charles: Yes, that is the big question. In some parts of Europe employees already do participate actively.
Jane: Still Semco must be taken seriously. A company that can survive more than a decade of Brazil’s inflation can’t just be ignored.
Charles: No, no, it certainly can’t, but there is one area, I believe, where this model won’t work. Transferring the model to a large corporation like IBM or General Motors doesn’t have much hope of Success, as long as giving up control means bringing information out in the open. And it is precise information, or the lack of it, which represents power in such organisations.
Jane: At any rate a few smaller companies have tried to directly copy Semco’s as any guide, there is a considerable appetite out there for making Western capitalism more civilized.
Charles: That certainly appears to be the case and yet I suppose the probability of this happening quickly is very small. The trouble is that the corporate world is run by people not exactly willing to lose their parking lots, let alone to subject themselves to monthly scrutiny by people whom, currently, they can hire and fire.