PEOPLE
Hierachies
Do you know
your place?
L
inear hierarchies,
reflecting nature’s
pecking order,
seem the inevitable
way to deliver
management and run
an organisation. However,
more recent research shows
that most socially-living
animal species (herds, packs,
and so forth), don’t have
straight linear hierarchies,
but complex social networks
of one-to-one ‘dyadic’
relationships. Imagine a three
dimensional cobweb, and you
are nearer to the natural order
of things - and nearer to the
complexity that leaders are
faced with managing.
So, where does that leave us
humans? Clearly, hierarchies
offer an easy, apparently
efficient way to organise
management structures.
Everyone knows their place
and who they report to. Yet
convenience and simplicity are
not always the best indicators
of effectiveness. Hierarchies
can mitigate against
innovation and progress in
an organisation, with a series
of ‘gatekeepers’ effectively
stifling the messages being
issued by top management and
suppressing the ideas coming
up from lower ranks. When
meritocracy is swept to one
side and promotion is based
on ‘filling dead mens’ shoes’
with the next employee in line,
standards of leadership, and
consequently organisational
performance, deteriorate.
Researchers have also shown
The traditional top-down hierarchies of
business may be due for an overhaul, says
Dr Deborah Benson, managing director of
Leaders for Leadership
that the longer and more
tiered the hierarchy, the
greater the propensity for
corruption, at all levels.
WHY LINEAR
HIERARCHIES?
It is claimed that the
application of linear
hierarchies grew dramatically
after the two world wars,
as people returned to
business and continued the
rigid military leadership
structures. However, such
structures are conceived
for crisis situations, where
leadership must be absolute,
with no time for consultation
and consensus. Perhaps,
by always applying crisis
leadership, we create a selffulfilling prophesy? Given
the recent economic crisis,
we have to question the
efficacy of rigid hierarchies,
reporting structures that
stifle debate, challenges
‘from the ranks’, and the
overarching authority of a
sole leader.
WHAT ARE THE
ALTERNATIVES?
There are alternatives. The
much quoted international
company, WL Gore &
Associates (manufactures
Hierarchies
can mitigate
against
innovation
and progress
in an
organisation
of Gore-Tex and other
technology-driven products)
employs a practice of ‘lattice’
leadership based on selfgoverning project teams - and
no hierarchies. It’s not a
management methodology for
all businesses, and certainly
not one to adopt overnight,
but think of the newest,
highly successful companies,
such as Facebook and Google.
The younger generation
has a different way of doing
business, and today’s ‘bright
young things’ will not bow
to rigid hierarchies and wait
twenty years for promotion.
If companies want to really
perform, or even survive, in
this modern world, we need to
challenge those old wartime
structures and recognise that
leadership is about being the
best person for the job. We
don’t all need to know our
place in the pecking order.
What we need is powerful fitfor-purpose project teams of
motivated, capable individuals
interacting positively, and staff
who want to be led, not by a
‘guy above’ in the hierarchy
but by the person with the
right skills and attributes.
Contact:
www. leadersforleadership.co.uk
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