Spotify, a Swedish commercial music service, is widely credited with dramatically changing the way consumers access and use music on a day-to-day basis. It has succeeded in moving consumers away from buying music and them toward a model of renting the music they enjoy for a monthly fee. Launched in 2008, the music giant was turned into the business we know today by Swedish entrepreneur Daniel Ek, who wanted to create a service that would be easier and more convenient for customers to use than the now-illegal file-sharing websites that were popular at the time.44 Like many technology companies, Spotify has a flat organizational structure rather than complex hierarchies of management.
For companies like Spotify, to get to the customer as quickly as possible, it is imperative that they work in a fastmoving way that allows changes in content. In order to work at the greatest efficiency, Spotify have adopted a management and organizational structure based upon squads, chapters, tribes, and guilds. Although there is little literature on organizational tribes or chapters, these do provide a useful way for Spotify to organize their staff and reporting structures in an industry where many are trying to remove managers entirely.45 Squads are the building blocks of the organizational structure at Spotify. These small teams work in a way that is similar to a small startup business. These squads sit together in one shared space to work as effectively as possible on one long-term mission, which is usually improving a specific area or part of the Spotify experience. Squads do not have a manager and instead work together to ensure that the overall problem is solved.
Each squad does, however, have a “product owner” whose job is to ensure that work is prioritized across the whole squad. Within each squad you will find employees with different skills who can contribute toward the squad achieving their goal.46 Tribes are groups of squads that work in similar areas. This means that all the squads working on web-based services are part of the same tribe, and squads who work on the mobile Spotify application will be part of a different tribe. Each tribe, like the individual squads, can work autonomously, with very little traditional management. Within the Spotify offices, the multiple squads that make up each tribe sit close together to allow collaboration between squads as needed; however, the ethos of Spotify is to discourage squads and tribes being dependent on one another so that change can happen as quickly as possible, which is incredibly important in the ever-changing technology market.
To manage the staff and structure throughout the organization, Spotify utilizes what they call “chapters,” which are collections of people who have similar skills but who work in various squads; for example, a chapter may include all of the programmers in the various squads within one tribe. It is within these chapters that we see more of a link to traditional management theory, with clearer lines of management and responsibility for staff members, their development, pay, and progression.
The only time people may work outside their tribe is when taking part in “guild” activities. Guilds are cross-tribe groups of people who have similar interests but—again—do not have any formal management; they are autonomous and self-managed, working on projects or problems that interest them.
As a fast-moving technology company, it is of course essential for Spotify to be able to react, change, and adapt their online content quickly. By approaching management in a non-traditional manner, they allow individuals to be more creative while meeting the overall goals of the business. There are, however, potential difficulties in adopting this more relaxed attitude to management, as there is a lack of control overall and many opportunities for the freedom offered to staff to be misused.
The rise of technology companies such as Spotify is changing the landscape of management, for many are trying to avoid traditional management practices altogether. Spotify is somewhat unique in its field as they have recognized the need for management within the organization but attempted to find a unique way of balancing the need for freedom and creativity in the workforce while still undertaking basic management activities.
As Spotify grows in size, they may need to reflect upon their approach to management.

Discussion Questions

1. Who undertakes management at Spotify?
2. How might Spotify manage poorly performing individuals or teams? Do you think this could be a problem at Spotify? Why or why not?

3. Are there any similarities to traditional management at Spotify?
4. Do you think that this approach to management would be effective at another company?