Hierarchy:

Hierarchy is a form of organizational structure in which each unit has one and only one "parent" unit, except the "top" unit, which has none. Most businesses and government organizations have a hierarchy of supervision. The classification of living beings is organized as a hierarchy of different categories. A family tree is a superimposition of two hierarchies--one for mothers and one for fathers.

Hierarchy in Nature?

It is hard to say whether hierarchy "occurs" in nature, because for the most part, hierarchy is merely a way of understanding (usually, of categorizing) natural systems. Biologists find hierarchy very useful to classify living organisms. Programmers find hierarchy useful in object oriented programming.

Pros & Cons of Hierarchy:

Pros / Advantages of Hierarchy:

The main use of hierarchy in human society is to ensure a clear chain of command. In the military (which is strictly hierarchical) this is essential. However, most businesses also have a hierarchical structure when it comes to supervision. Hierarchy helps to clarify job function by giving each person a clear sense of whom they report to and whom they supervise. It is hard to imagine a large organization functioning at all without some type of hierarchy.

Cons / Disadvantages of Hierarchy:

Hierarchy is just one type of structure and it cannot exist on its own. One problem with hierarchy is that it can give too much power to the people at the top, which can lead to corruption. For this reason, most corporations have a board which has the authority to supervise, hire, and fire top executives, as well as setting and overseeing certain policy. The board exists outside of the hierarchy, and in theory is supposed to behave more democratically.

But there are futher problems to hierarchy other than those arising from the concentration of power. One is overspecialization and disconnection among units in the hierarchy that are not directly related. For example, many organizations take hierarchy to mean that they should not interact with people other than their supervisor and those they supervise--this leads to bad communication, duplication of work, and general inefficiency. Most organizations pair hierarchy with other structures, so that a clear chain of command is preserved, but people are also encouraged to look at the organization as a whole and are given guidelines of how they can interact with other parts of the organization.

Power vs. Responsibility in Hierarchy:

In organizations that are arranged hierarchically, people higher up in the hierarchy tend to have both more power and more responsibility. However, this is not always the case. There is a need to balance power and responsibility, as hierarchies can become problematic if an individual is given too much power with too little responsibility (allowing them to exploit the organization for their own personal gain) or too much responsibility with too little power (making it impossible for them to carry out their job effectively).

Complementing Hierarchy with Other Structures:

In modern governments, and also in corporations, hierarchy is often combined to varying degrees with democracy. For example, the United States government has democratically-elected officials, who vote in a democratic manner on creating laws, but the execute branch of the government has a hierarchical power structure. Similarly, although corporations are primarily hierarchical in structure, they typically are run by a board of directors, elected democratically by share holders, and voting democratically on key policies, including the appointment of CEO's or auditors, or on compensation plans.

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