Complex hierarchy: The strategic advantages of a trade-off between hierarchical supervision and self-organizing

This paper presents two case studies of research labs in which changes implemented in hierarchical structures differ from the delayering and downsizing reported by current empirical works. In both labs, authority relationships between superiors and subordinates relaxed and became indirect and recursive. Then, together, superiors and subordinates engaged in self-organizing processes and produced structures that had emergent characteristics. The...