Hierarchy is the structuring of social status and role within an organization or society ranked according to differentiations of power, authority, wealth, or income. Related terms of hierarchy are ranking or stratification. Issues of hierarchy extend beyond issues of social class. A hierarchy is an arrangement in which the items are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. A system that is largely hierarchical can also incorporate alternative hierarchies. Four dimensions of organizational hierarchy are inequality of skills and knowledge, inequality of rewards, inequality of authority, and inequality of information distribution. Daniel Bell and Wang Pei show, it is neither possible nor advisable to do away with social hierarchies. Just Hierarchy contends that this stigma is a mistake. All complex and large-scale societies are organized along certain hierarchies, but the concept of hierarchy has become almost taboo in the modern world.
Gender Hierarchy Among Gujarati Immigrants: Linking Immigration Policy and Cultural Norms. - Nandini Narain Assar. The nature of motel work allows women to contribute their labor full-time and still remain housewives: they are not recognized as workers. When families take on subsequent links in the chain migration, they must meet the costs of migration for new immigrants, and maintain traditional gender hierarchy. When they are the last link in the chain, there is a challenge to this hierarchy. In the second generation, when they remain in the motel business, Patels maintain traditional gender hierarchy. When either partner is linked to the labor market, there is a challenge to traditional gender hierarchy.
Varieties of Hierarchies and Markets: an Introduction - GARY G. HAMILTON, ROBERT C. FEENSTRA. Abstract: The paper presents both a theoretical and an empirical argument that the concept of hierarchy needs to be reconceptualized. In our theoretical discussion we develop a synthesis between Coase's and Williamson's conception of a market/hierarchy dichotomy and Max Weber's distinction between economic power and authority. We hold that the authoritative aspects of hierarchies, especially within networks of firms, have independent effects on the formation of market economies.
The Enduring Place of Hierarchy in World Politics: Tracing the Social Logics of
Hierarchy and Political Change -
John M. Hobson and J. C. Sharman.
Conventional wisdom maintains that since 1648 the international system has comprised
states-as-like units endowed with Westphalian sovereignty under anarchy. And while radical
globalization theorists certainly dispute the centrality of the state in modern world
politics, nevertheless most assume that the state retains its sovereignty under globalization. Successive religious, racial, socialist and
democratic social logics not only constitute their reproduction, but the emergence of new
norms, social ideas and identities have to an important extent accounted for the rise and
decay of successive hierarchies.
Class Identities and the
Identity of Class - Wendy Bottero.
The uneasy relationship between older and newer aspects of ‘class’ within
renewed class theory means the wider implications of inequality considered as
individualized hierarchy have not been fully
explored. Status
hierarchy is gender-neutral, and displays clear continuities with that depicted
for the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries in historical and
earlier sociological research. We further show that the correlation between
social status and both income and education is only rather modest.
'Is There a Status Order in Contemporary British Society? Evidence from the Occupational Structure of Friendship', Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, October, Chan, Tak Wing and Goldthorpe, John (2002).
Hierarchy, Alienation, Commitment, and Organizational Effectiveness
William M. Evan.
Four dimensions of organizational hierarchy are identified: inequality of skills and
knowledge, inequality of rewards, inequality of authority, and inequality of information
distribution. An alternative hypothesis
is formulated, viz., that it is negatively related. This hypothesis is linked to a causal
model interrelating hierarchical structure with work alienation, organizational
commitment, and organizational effectiveness. The phenomenon of "shop-floor democracy" is
conceptualized as involving a process of destratification with respect to all four
dimensions of hierarchy.
WELFARE, HIERARCHY AND THE `NEW RIGHT': THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL POLICY CHANGES IN BRITAIN, 1979-1989 - Peter Taylor-Gooby. The policy statements of the British Conservative government are heavily influenced by 'new right' ideology. However, progress towards the declared goals of spending constraint, the expansion of the private sector, a high degree of selectivity in state provision and tax reduction has been slow. The impact of policy change fits an old right programme of dependency, obligation and hierarchy better than a `new right' ideology of market individualism. ... obligation and hierarchy better than a `new right' ideology of market individualism.
Ryon Lancaster. “Constructing Careers: The Creation of Hierarchy in the Catholic Church.”