Hierarchical organization

Hierarchical organizations include all systems where there is power control over lower levels. For example, it may be a community of animals (a flock ) with its leader and its "approximate". Such an organization can be attributed to a three-tier system. The largest hierarchical organizations (known to people) are government structures, controlling communities of smaller organizations (commercial firms , political organizations , family units , etc.)

The term “hierarchical organization” is used to describe many structures of a tree type. By itself, this type of organization cannot be considered “good” or “bad”, but only adequate or inadequate in relation to the tasks to be solved. Hierarchical systems are widely used in technology: for example, a complex communication system , a data processing system , file systems, a classical American management system, a transport management system, and many others are always organized according to a hierarchical principle that allows you to perform various operations in parallel, work with individual information files and etc. ^[2]

The opposite type of organization is networked (not allowing for a breakdown into levels). Horizontal structure is a system of relations at one or close levels of a hierarchical organization, complementing its capabilities (or destructively conflicting with it). Networking is also needed to increase system survivability and flexibility . With proper organization, they give the system the property of holographic , when the subsystem continues to perform the function of the system even with significant damage (perhaps with a deterioration in quality).

“Biological systems demonstrate increasing hierarchical organization as they climb the evolutionary scale. In the human body, the leading position is occupied by the nervous system , which controls and coordinates subordinate systems, such as muscular activity (through motor ways) or internal organs (through the paths of the autonomic nervous system). Hierarchy can also be observed in the nervous system itself. The processing of high-level information is carried out by associative areas that occupy the highest level in the hierarchy. These areas integrate incoming information from all parts of the brain system. Primary cortex areas specialize in lower-level processes and are thus subject to associative processes. ” ^[3]

Moreover, from the point of view of organization theory, some mental diseases appear as a conflict between partial horizontal processes and global hierarchical management: “Due to the multiple requirements that define global structures, some partial processes may encounter difficulties when referring to global structures. This is especially so if the partial processes carry information that is completely eliminated from global messages or contradicts them. Based on these assumptions, it is possible to imagine the type of information that will be denied access to the global structure; these will be contradictory or inappropriate messages (that is, partial patterns that do not meet the requirements of global patterns). ” ^[3] The described neurotic effect has a universal organizational nature, and can be observed in any organizations in the event of a conflict between hierarchical and network structures. In organizational management consulting, the conflict of dual subordination (for example, vertical and horizontal management structures) is called "professional schizophrenia " ^[4]

• Organizational structure
• Levels of organization live
• Heterarchy