Tata Motors to follow no designation policy for hierarchy free culture

Managers between L1-L5 grades will use the job title 'Head' followed by the function/department

Tata Motors has initiated a no designation policy in its bid to create a hierarchy free culture in the company.

As part of the initiative all managers between L1-L5 grades who have a team reporting to them will use the job title 'Head' followed by the function/department.

Other employees, who are largely at the front end and do not have teams reporting into them, also known as individual contributors (IC4 - IC6), will only use the title of the function/department after their name.

At this stage, however, the Executive Committee comprising of the MD and CEO and the leadership team, will continue to use their designations.

"In a bid to create a culture free of hierarchy, we have after much thought introduced a strategic initiative of a 'no designation' policy, within the organisation," a Tata Motors spokesperson said in an emailed response.

"In a competitive market such as ours, we are focused on empowering our employees and enabling optimal productivity which we believe is possible with a reduced line of reporting, making the performance tracking process simple and transparent," the spokesperson added.

The Organisational Effectiveness (OE) programme has been one of the core initiatives under the company's transformational journey and to enable this, a detailed study on how to improve the speed, simplicity and agility within the company was conducted.

With the support of an external agency, the details of the new structure have now been finalised and are being implemented, the spokesperson said.

"This exercise, coupled with other strategic initiatives as part of the company's transformation journey will enable Tata Motors to achieve a global mind-set, through a strong and continued focus on operational excellence and robust processes," the spokesperson added.

The auto major has already reduced its managerial workforce by up to 1,500 people domestically as part of an organisational restructuring exercise.