The "principle of self similality" suggests a way to approach this
challenge of designing and/or dealing with hierarchies.
The principle says (as formulated by me), "any feature of a system is
reflected in all of its parts".
So, there will be hierarchies all over the place. They will not be
mutually exclusive. They may overlap. They will not only be top
down in formal organisation terms. They will be multiple with
varying size, scope and duration. They will just be a mechanism
within the larger system.
--
Michael McMaster : Michael@kbdworld.com
web:http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe/TIA/TIAmap.html
"I don't give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity
but I'd die for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."
attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations
For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>