Imagine a workplace without a boss — or any managers, for that matter — a place where every employee is on equal footing.

In this company, workers keep commitments made to one another. They don’t use force or coercion to get the job done. And no one can be fired.

This concept of self-management is still an avant-garde way of operating in most of the business world, but it’s an innovative management style that’s gaining momentum.

Doug Kirkpatrick, a Kalispell native and business consultant for The Morning Star Co., the world’s largest tomato processor, was back in his hometown recently to share his insight on self-management with business students at Glacier and Flathead high schools.

California-based Morning Star, which brings in sales of $700 million and produces 90 million pounds of tomato paste annually — supplying big brand names like Heinz — is the result of decades of work by entrepreneur Chris Ruger, who started in the tomato business as a trucking company, with just one truck, in 1970. He put together a business plan for a new way to market tomatoes and by 1982 began construction of his first successful food processing plant, Ingomar Packing Co.

Kirkpatrick joined the team as financial controller during the plant start-up and was able to observe Ruger’s innovations as they progressed.

“He kept noticing better ways to do things,” Kirkpatrick said of Ruger’s business savvy.

By 1990 Ruger left Ingomar to form The Morning Star Packing Co. and Kirkpatrick followed. Morning Star began operating with the self-management philosophy with the construction of its first factory.

At the heart of the business concept was Ruger’s observation that outside of the workplace, people organize themselves in all kinds of scenarios — everything from volunteer projects to raising a family — without having a boss.

“If people can organize themselves outside of work, why do they need a boss at work?” Kirkpatrick said.

The primary characteristic of self-management is flatness.

“The organization is designed to be as flat as a floor, with absolutely no hierarchy,” Kirkpatrick said. “There are no directive human bosses; the only boss is the company mission statement.”

Command authority doesn’t exist, even with the owner. That means no one can be fired, which can be a challenge since not everyone “does a good job,” he said.

But there is an effective process of justice and due process for self-managed companies. There are resources colleagues use to synchronize their activities with others.

The Colleague Letter of Understanding is an accountability agreement that becomes an enforceable contract. It declares each individual’s personal commercial mission, business process responsibilities and performance measures that are “stepping stones” to help people know if they’re doing a good job, Kirkpatrick explained.

Self-management has worked well for Morning Star, which employs 400 people year-round and seasonally peaks at about 2,500 employees.

Some have argued the concept works for Morning Star because it “just smashes tomatoes,” but Kirkpatrick pointed out the company has a wide spectrum of specialists working with plant genetics, thermodynamics, microbiology and food chemistry who work alongside those who perform manual tasks.

In December 2011 Morning Star’s self-management philosophy was detailed in the Harvard Business Review, which deemed the tomato giant “the world’s most creatively managed company.”

“Now the world is trying to beat the door down to find out what we’ve done,” Kirkpatrick said.

Morning Star has its own think tank, the Morning Star Self-Management Institute, and Kirkpatrick has started his own consulting company, Redshift3. He works and blogs with the Self-Management Institute and has spent the past decade consulting for Morning Star.

Kirkpatrick, 56, also has written a book about self-management, “Beyond Empowerment: The Age of the Self-Managed Organization.” He’s on an international world speaking tour that will take him from China to the United Kingdom and other countries.

His stop in Kalispell was one of many he’ll make in the coming months. Kirkpatrick was born and raised here, the son of Ken and Arlene Kirkpatrick. Ken was a local architect who helped design Kalispell Junior High School and other buildings around Kalispell; Arlene was a teacher in Columbia Falls.

Kirkpatrick attended Kalispell schools through his sophomore year, when the family moved to Missoula.

For more information about Morning Star Self-Management Institute or Redshift3, go to www.redshift3.org.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.