Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 15, 1994                   TAG: 9405130077
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LUCINDA FLEESON KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AS COMPANIES REMAKE THEMSELVES, -EXECUTIVES ARE BEING DE-PERKED

Right?

Wrong! As many companies have been restructured, re-engineered, reorganized and reshuffled under new management philosophies, the traditional executive perquisites are viewed as things of the past. As dated as a tassel loafer.

For these ``emerging edge'' companies, the hierarchical organization is out and with it the palatial executive office on the top floor and status-symbol furniture.

Teamwork, egalitarianism, informality and a flattening of the organizational structure are in. And so an increasing number of companies - particularly in highly competitive fields, such as biotechnology or computers - are opting for architecture and interior design that are essentially rankless. Everything - the size of an office, whether it has windows, the shape of the boardroom table, and even the chairs on which everyone sits - is changing.

It's not all about teamwork. Cost-saving is another motive. ``Differentiating space for rank is an extremely expensive way to let people know where they stand,'' says Fritz Steele, an organizational behavior consultant in Boston. When management is reorganized, he said, it is often difficult to reconfigure traditional offices to reflect the new power structure. ``It would be cheaper to give out badges or hats,'' he says.

At a time when many companies are reducing their work forces, the physical manifestation of executive privilege is also seen as insensitive and ostentatious. ``Firms are, for the most part, still looking for ways to get rid of people,'' says Harvard Business School professor Nitin Nohria. ``In that kind of atmosphere, it's very hard to maintain physical signs of executive privilege.''

Corner offices, once assigned to the top executives as a matter of course, are now being designed to house common rooms at many companies.

Executives at the new pharmaceuticals research facility for Sterling Winthrop Inc., in Collegeville, Pa., aren't allotted much more space than the standard 12-by-12-foot offices inhabited by engineers and scientists.

``This is the fanciest office there is in the building, but it is the same as all the others,'' says Eugene H. Cordes, president of the facility, which opened in 1992.

His office is 12 by 16 feet, which allows for a four-chair conference table. His furniture, while the same standard as everyone else's, has a subtle differentiation in fabric: a gold thread pattern running through the burgundy fabric. But gold thread is about the only executive perk there is at the drug company - except, of course, for executive-size salaries.

There are private dining rooms, but they are open, by appointment, for anyone's use. The weightlifting equipment at the in-house health club is available, first-come, first-served, to all employees.

Other companies are going even further in distributing space along egalitarian lines: If you get a private office, you don't get a window.

Hewlett-Packard, the computer company that coined the phrase ``management by walking around,'' has abolished private offices. Even the CEO in Palo Alto, Calif., gets an open cubicle - with no door.

The company's 1992 facility in Wilmington, Del., is a glass-walled, 12-sided, figure-eight-shaped building designed to maximize window space. By policy, no desk is more than 45 feet from the window. Four coffee bars on each floor encourage employees to toss ideas around during breaks.

Only the customer reception area, where outsiders can come in and play with the new high-tech equipment, has upscale leather furniture and impressive large-scale doors and fancy wood inlays.

At Hewlett-Packard, as at other companies, the sacrosanct boardroom is changing in shape and function. Traditionally a long, narrow room with an elegant table, a boardroom was most often used for ceremonial functions.

Now, board members are just as likely to meet in multipurpose rooms that are used for large employee meetings as well. The shape of the board table is changing into a wider, more square shape that eliminates the focal point formerly reserved for the chairman and allows people to see one another better.