My hot take: a meritocracy will never fully exist in a workplace so long as there’s a hierarchy of power and therefore politics.
But I’m not advocating for removing a hierarchy.
But I’m not advocating for removing a hierarchy.
I'm personally convinced that "no hierarchy" or "flat hierarchies" mostly means that hidden hierarchies will form anyway, and thus the situation you end up with, while different to traditional strict hierarchies, is still extremely hierarchical in the end.
The argument goes that there is always a power structure and it's better that it's explicit rather than implicit.
Reading that article changed the way I viewed organisations and structure, and how one should act within one.
As I have just demonstrated my selfless pursuit of equality for all, naturally I should be placed at the very top of the new non-hierarchy.