Toward a theory of hierarchical coordination and conflict

Abstract

Management and control structures for steel-producing firms are widely envisioned as multi-level hierarchies. A system-theoretic framework is developed in this paper for quite general three-level hierarchical structures. A notion of organizational conflict is defined, and it is shown that the additional structure of three-level hierarchies provides more flexibility to resolve conflict than do two-level structures. A discussion is given of current and anticipated future developments for this theory.