Hierarchies, authority, and leadership

✍ Scribed by Harold J. Leavitt

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Weight: 84 KB
• Volume: 2005
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1087-8149
• DOI: 10.1002/ltl.141

✦ Synopsis

hen it comes to hierarchy in organizations, Mark Twain's comment applies:"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Indeed, despite persistent (and perhaps, hopeful) rumors to the contrary, hierarchy is alive and well-and it's not going away anytime soon.

It seems important to remind ourselves of that rather obvious reality, because for more than half a century many sensible observers-academics, consultants, and even some senior executives-have been asserting that hierarchical architecture is over the hill, dying, being supplanted by circular systems, federalized structures, networks, and other more egalitarian designs.Yet even casual observation suggests that while some of those other forms may be moving in, hierarchies are not moving out. For better or for worse, the pyramid remains the dominant design of organizations in today's world, just as it was in yesterday's.

To be sure, hierarchies have changed in important ways. Many have flattened, teamed, and otherwise modernized. And their inevitable authoritarianism has been veiled and perfumed to obscure its unattractiveness.Yet beneath the veils, almost all large human organizations are still top-down, authority-driven structures. Bosses are still piled on bosses. People lower down still report to those higher up. Those organizations are still loaded with control systems, performance evaluations, and a host of other constraints on their people's behavior. And large hierarchies are still plagued by a variety of human and productive flaws. This article explores the relationships among hierarchy, its handmaiden authority, and the working lives of contemporary leaders in organizations, especially midlevel managerleaders. It proposes that modern leaders within hierarchies would do well to look deeply into themselves, become as savvy as they can about the power and politics of their