Hierarchy

In human relations, governance in which who is in power over whom is clearly defined. For example, a hierarchy may exist with a company owner and three employees in that the owner is in charge of the employees. Hierarchy is easy to understand; power structures are marked and followed. It may be contrasted with a heterarchy, but one may exist within the other.

hierarchy

any pattern of social relationships where some individuals have AUTHORITY over others.
the vertical structure of an ORGANIZATION. Generally there will be a number of management levels in the hierarchy with each having authority over the one beneath it. In a very small organization there might be only two levels in the hierarchy – the manager and the managed. In larger organizations the number will be greater, though it is rarely above eight. Organizations with a high number of levels are said to be tall whilst those with only two or three are said to be flat. There is an inverse relationship with the SPAN OF CONTROL. Where the latter is high, i.e. each manager supervises a large number of subordinates, there will be a tendency towards a flat structure. For the same number of total staff, a low span of control will be associated with a tall structure. See ORGANIZATION CHART, DE-LAYERING.

hierarchy

the ORGANIZATION of economic activities within the FIRM. The internal hierarchy of management levels within the firm can, under certain circumstances, take responsibility for economic transactions rather than conduct them at arm's length through external MARKET relationships. See INTERNALIZATION.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

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References in periodicals archive

For hierarchical verification, the IJTAG network inserted at the core level is verified first at that level then again with the IJTAG network of each higher level.

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But, asserting their hierarchical instincts, they claimed reflexively their own special power and privilege by declaring themselves exempt from the regulations they just passed for the priests beneath them.

The hierarchical spirit that will not die: Under hierarchical culture, abuse crisis will remain with us

The suggested hierarchical strategy leads to computational savings irrespective of this implementation choice.

Hierarchical Classification Using Binary Data

First, we compare estimates produced from 3 single-year Bayesian models and 1 hierarchical multiyear Bayesian model, using simulated scenarios reflective of missing and sparse data typical for monitoring with rotary screw traps (RSTs) in Idaho.

A multiyear hierarchical Bayesian mark-recapture model incorporating data on recurring salmonid behavior to account for sparse or missing data

In data mining, hierarchical clustering is one of the most widely used cluster analysis method that groups a set of objects according to their similarities by building a cluster tree or dendrogram.

K-Linkage: A New Agglomerative Approach for Hierarchical Clustering

The general concept of optimal hierarchical random graph is as following.

Research of Hierarchical Random Graph Model based on maximum likelihood estimation

The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between adhocracy culture and technology acceptance, as there is an inverse relationship between hierarchical culture and technology acceptance.

A study of the effect of organizational culture on management information systems adoption; West Azerbaijan's public organizations case study

In this paper, centering around the hierarchical community mining [5, 6] problem, we find a significant discovery that the combination and evolution process of community members can be detected when disclosing community hierarchy.

Hierarchical community detection algorithm based on local similarity