I agree with you that organizationally companies may end up having to go in that direction, but I think there are some interim steps to have employees feel more like they have a voice.

For example, we run internal prediction markets at companies where employees get to make bets on relevant outcomes (will we beat sales targets this quarter, will this project get done on time, etc.) that drive decision making. We also run internal Kickstarter-style crowdfunding campaigns, where a chunk of money is literally distributed to employees to spend on ideas they come up with themselves. So for example, we're working with a nuclear lab and they distributed $1.5M to about 500 employees. Ideas they came up with that the "crowd" funded to their "tipping point," the lab agreed would turn in to actual projects. Normally these decisions would have been made by executives only, now they've been completely democratized.

That’s a good point. In my company they have started to solicit ideas and even ways to fund them but this breaks down because it’s still the execs deciding on the winners and there is no financial benefit for the employees who provided the ideas. So as employee you become very cynical when you win a contest and the only thing you get out of it is some pizza with a VP and more work.