Is hierarchy inevitable? Or is the end nigh?

I’m currently reading The Three Ways of Getting Things Done: Hierarchy, Heterarchy and Responsible Autonomy in Organizations (Dorset, UK: Triarchy Press, 2005), a slender gem of a book by Gerard Fairtlough, which was recommended on this list by ParadigmLeaps.

“Hegemony makes a situation seem normal to nearly everyone—taken for granted and never questioned. When nearly everyone finds hierarchy to be a normal and inevitable part of organization, this leads to the hegemony of hierarchy…

“Nearly everyone finds hierarchy to be a normal and necessary part of organization. This automatic assumption is part of its hegemony…

“A cynic might say that, if everyone agrees about the inevitability of hierarchy, it will be impossible to change. Certainly it won’t be easy. However two hundred years ago, aristocratic domination was considered inevitable. One hundred years ago, so was patriarchal rule. Change away from these was strongly resisted, but it happened. It could be that hierarchy in organizations is a further idea whose end is nigh, driven by social intellectual and technological change...

"I have become convinced that it has become vital to question hierarchy's inevitability. Tinkering isn't enough. Huge shifts are needed."

More to come...

Comments

[Charles van der Haegen]

Nice to read this post about Gerald and his ideas about hierarchy. The question he asked himself really was how to diffuse such counterintuitive ideas. He passed away without response. I also have no response yet. Therefore your work and latest book are important and a formidable contribution. Thanks for that,

Charles

[Graeme Roberts]

I will look for the source, but I read an article on education recently that pointed out the great difficulty of teaching working class children (and children of more feudal and hierarchical cultures) to question ideas and reason for themselves, the very characteristics they will ultimately need in order to lead.

[Coach Outlet]

My take is that the problem is not so much that Agile and Scrum don't t scale. We now have many examples of large-scale implementations of Agile.