Royce Consulting

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The causes of all of the related issues is a top-down management structure. When it came to the virtual office and hoteling system, executives failed to consult with management, who are promoted quickly from the ranks of entry-level workers and thus tend to be closer to them than to higher management and partners. Again, partners ultimately have veto power, but hearing from management would have allowed innovative solutions to be heard. One thing that the company could do is give managers a stipend to create a home office and use the money they are saving on leasing to facilitate telecommuting systems (which they are doing to some extent with the virtual office), providing for the cost of company lunches and increased car use, and letting workers create a professional setting that they can greet clients in. Another solution might be to rent smaller office space across the country, so that managers would live closer to their general clientele and travel less, maximizing the office space while increasing company insertion. In particular, since most managers felt that productivity would go down without an office, the organization needed to consult them to determine exactly by how much and compare that to the savings of the lost leasing overhead.

The company needs to change to a less directive format. Beginning with entry-level workers, autonomy should be encouraged and developed. In consulting, it is important that the person speaking directly to the client has both the confidence and skill to proactively offer solutions to new problems that emerge and the institutional backing to quickly create them after little to nominal consultation. This less directive format would have caused them, when restructuring the office, to bring in the people who were being most impacted by the decision. They would have found that most managers would not voluntarily give up an office, such that other solutions should be explored. Aside from those mentioned, solutions to the office problem could include mobile buildings that are office space when necessary and can be used for consultation issues, storage or in turn sub-let when they are not. Most managers don't mind moving their office now and again: They mind not having one, not having some kind of stable place at any given moment to organize their files and be able to meet clients in their own settings. These compromise solutions should be implemented after they are proposed by managers, alongside any other solutions that would work for managers while still cutting down on leasing. Ultimately, the company is a kind of company that benefits extremely from having a back-and-forth on major issues and a great degree of initiative at every level; it needs to make sure to develop that with a better organizational structure.