> "Take the case of supposedly hierarchy-free companies...."
>
> "Someone needs to make decisions and be held responsible for their consequences. During times of stress or disorganization, people naturally tend to look to leaders for direction."
it's ironic that the author misses the first-order purpose of hierarchies, which is to solve the coordination problem, not simply to have a leader barking orders.
we've also (re-)learned a lot about the second-order effects of allowing power to centralize in organizations as a result. yes, hierarchies can be useful, and yes, hierarchies are highly problematic. so yes, we should be looking at better models of coordination.
seems like they didn't think through any order of effects before making control hierarchies one of their central examples.
>
> "Someone needs to make decisions and be held responsible for their consequences. During times of stress or disorganization, people naturally tend to look to leaders for direction."
it's ironic that the author misses the first-order purpose of hierarchies, which is to solve the coordination problem, not simply to have a leader barking orders.
we've also (re-)learned a lot about the second-order effects of allowing power to centralize in organizations as a result. yes, hierarchies can be useful, and yes, hierarchies are highly problematic. so yes, we should be looking at better models of coordination.
seems like they didn't think through any order of effects before making control hierarchies one of their central examples.