ROWE
Kind of work environment
A results-only work environment (ROWE) is a work approach or organizational structure in which employees are entirely autonomous and responsible for delivering outcomes. This managerial tactic redirects attention from the hours spent at work to the results generated. Leaders mentor performance and oversee the work itself, instead of micromanaging employees' time.
A results-only work environment provides employees with complete autonomy over the timing, location, and methodology of their work. Instead of being bound to a specific workplace or schedule, personnel are responsible for achieving desired outcomes.
A results-only work environment (ROWE) is a modern work culture that rests on the principle that individuals are recruited to produce clear, measurable results. Managers focus on managing the work being accomplished rather than how other people work.
Origins
In 2003, Best Buy headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, initiated an innovation experiment called ROWE. Two employees, Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler, questioned the effectiveness of their work approach in generating optimal outcomes for both the company and its employees. They aimed to facilitate the employees, enabling the company to attain its desired results.
Some researchers refer to this as a dual agenda.
The public source identifies “ROWE” as kind of work environment. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around ROWE, Kind and work.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1575720. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “ROWE” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.