[jmchuster]

Sure, at very small sizes where everyone personally knows everyone, there are a lot of things you can get away with.

I like the story of google, however. They theorized they didn't need managers, tried to prove it, and ended up proving the opposite. It's almost the kind of thing only google could do, that is a large enough company with the resources to run large scale studies internally, yet is curious and cares enough that they're willing to run such a study to definitively determine the direct value of managers and manager traits.

https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/google-tried-to-prove-manage...