It is a radical step for a bank subsidiary: the asset manager DWS will no longer give its managers titles - and delete all previous ones. They will then no longer bear designations such as "Head of", "Director" or "Managing Editor", the company announced this week.
"We want to create an agile work environment in which performance is rewarded," explains Björn Pietsch - currently still the "Head of CEO Office" at DWS - the decision in favor of SPIEGEL. With this, the company is following a trend: Granting employees a voice, reducing hierarchies and managing as little as possible is now in.
CloudFlare makes the difference in the US: The company offers online security services, employs more than 1000 people - and does not use any titles. Even online shoe retailer Zappos, which Amazon took over for its own account for more than 800 million dollars, renounces to managers, at least to the name.
By the way, DWS announced that it would not only cancel its titles but also promotions in 2019. Do companies actually implement an innovative measure with the abolition of titles - or is it just a covert savings program?
"The term 'agile work' is often abused"
The working sociologist Stefan Sauer researches on the subject of recognition in the job - and sees the abolition of titles critical. "If promotions are eliminated, there is less reason for salary increases," says Sauer. In addition, titles are an easy way to give employees a reputation and to express their appreciation. Whoever abolishes titles needs an equal reward system for his employees.
In principle, Sauer welcomes the idea of rewarding employees for their performance. It is difficult, however, to evaluate this objectively. For factual key figures such as sales revenues are too easy to analyze, but the actual work of the employee rarely reflected them comprehensively.
"The term 'agile work' is often abused," says Sauer. If there is not a well thought-out concept behind the restructuring, companies are often mainly concerned with saving money - agility as a buzzword.
"Explicitly no austerity program"
DWS rejects this assumption. "This is not an austerity program," says Pietsch. In addition to the performance-oriented promotion of employees, hierarchies would be reduced and the individual employee would be able to contribute more easily. However, a concrete budget for the restructuring is not available.
The consulting company Kuehlhaus has had good experiences with abolishing titles. Just two years ago, managing director Daniel Reschke decided that his 75 employees should no longer carry any titles. On their business cards there is the saying "No titles, just roles". No titles, only roles. Reschke is the only one today who still has an official name as a member of the executive board.
It is always clear who is responsible for what
All other employees have so-called roles, most of them five to ten of them: the role of "travel", for example, takes care of business trips, "catering" for the food at events. "Roles can be passed on more easily as titles from person to person," says Reschke. And that also means that the work becomes more efficient, easier to structure - and can be redistributed faster when an employee leaves the company.
"Of course, there were employees who could not handle it," says the CEO about the introduction of the new concept. He also received a notice. However, he received positive feedback from most of the employees, says Reschke.
He has seen significant changes in his company. There is no longer the junior boss looking down on the secretary - simply because the titles were missing.
Working sociologist Sauer also sees opportunities in managing companies without a title. Employees could work independently and received real appreciation for their work. It is important that the concept is implemented professionally. However, it is usually small companies that have been using agile methods since their foundation - and they do not have to take the titles away from their employees.
