You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
All metaphor breaks down somewhere. … It is touch and go with the metaphor, and until you have lived with it long enough you don't know where it is going. You don't know how much you can get out of it and when it will cease to yield. It is a very living thing. It is as life itself.
Large organizations of the twenty-first century will continue to rely on time-tested forms of organizational structure perfected during the twentieth century. The most numerous of these organization forms is the hierarchical organizational structure, where layer upon layer of positions are depicted in the familiar chart of organization (see Figure 1). These organizational tables array positions downward from a single position containing the most organizational power and authority to those with the least. The single position at the top of these charts, the chief executive officer position (CEO), is understood to contain within it the ultimate responsibility for the organization's performance and with this responsibility ultimate decision-making power and final authority. It is also understood that as one descends the hierarchy the amount of decision-making power and authority diminishes to the point where, near the bottom, employees may very well have no formal decision-making power or authority relative to even the smallest task that they perform.
Hierarchical organizations are, however, much more than a multi-layered organization form that arrays positions by their importance, power, and authority on a vertical axis. A second equally important attribute is that they are divided up on a horizontal axis, as any inspection of a traditional organization chart reveals (see Figure 1). Large organizations contain many areas of specialization, such as finance, accounting, marketing, legal and information services, research and development, production, and human resources, to list but some of the most common divisions arrayed on this horizontal axis. Additionally, within some of these div