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Even today, just about every large organization remains hierarchical. The organizations of the knowledge economy-whether loosely coupled, networked, or federalized-seem to be no more than modifications of the same basic design. The new flatter（扁平的）, faster organizations certainly reflect some important changes in the way business is done, but the basic blueprint is unchanged. Subordinates continue to report to superiors, much as they historically have done, at GE and IBM. Department heads report to division managers, who report to group VPs and so on. Hierarchy, it seems, may be intrinsic to our natures. 2 Hierarchy, of course, is not just an organizational construct. It is a phenomenon intrinsic to the complexity of the natural world. But hierarchy is more than natures way of helping us to process complexity. Powerful psychological forces come into play. Hierarchies (等级森严的组织，等级制度) provide clear markers that let us know how far and fast we are climbing the ladder of success: Clerks can become department heads, corporals(下士) can move up to sergeants（中士）. Often those markers are symbolic, such as corner offices, enriched titles like assistant vice president, or employee of the month. Why do such seemingly trivial measures so often succeed? Perhaps because we want to be evaluated, and hierarchies offer us report cards (工作成绩表) in the respectable form of performance appraisals, salary increases, promotions, bonuses, and stock operations. We may grouse (complain) about unfair evaluations and meager (small, scant) raises, but most of us seem to want to see our grades. 3 Hierarchies give us more than these somewhat questionable measures of our worth; they give us an identity. Just think of how it feels to be out of a job for an extended period. Loss of income is not the only problem. Self-esteem is involved: ones role in society, ones own identity. When someone is jobless in an individualistic, high-achieving culture like ours, it takes a strong ego (自尊，自我) to maintain a sense of self-worth. Only the very young and the very old are permitted the luxury of respectable joblessness. And for the very old, it is still important to have been a division manager at DuPont, or a foreman（supervisor） at the local bakery, or a colonel （上校）in the Marine Corps（海军陆战队）。 4 Of course, there are many people who thrive outside hierarchical organizations-artists, for instance, entrepreneurs, homemakers, and freelance (自由职业者的) professionals-but most of us who work inside hierarchies take comfort from them. Like our families, communities, and religions, they help us define ourselves. They provide identity, a flag to fly. Write down quickly three short answers to the question: “Who are you?” At least one of your answers will have something to do with your role in a hierarchy. 5 Hierarchies add structure and regularity to our lives. They give us routines, duties, and responsibilities. We may not realize that we need such things until we lose them. One friend of mine, after he retired, took to keeping goats. “Why?” I asked him. “Because goats have to be milked regularly,” he replied. “That gives me a reason to wake up every morning.” Without required routines, we might find ourselves afloat in a sea of anomie (迷惘，焦虑，规范缺失等状态). 6 For all these reasons, hierarchies can be very effective at providing some of the psychic (精神的，心灵的) nourishment we all need. Of course, many are even more effective at draining （消耗）that nourishment from our minds and souls. Too often, we come to depend on these structures as a kind of protective parent guarding us against the dangers of the outside world. Unfortunately, that sense of safety is illusory （虚幻的，不可靠的）. What becomes of (happens to ) us when our seemingly indestructible guardian (保护者， 守护者) is destroyed, as on September 11, 2001? Or suppose we had been employed at Enron? When hierarchy fails us, we realize that what we trusted in was often no more than a projection（反映）of our own needs. 7 Contemporary organizations are hierarchical, and authority is hierarchys inseparable handmaiden (female servant). Even the most modern of managers must inevitably exercise some degree of authority some of the time. 8 Hierarchies authoritarianism shows up in all kinds of ways, perhaps most obviously in communication. In multilevel organizations, messages get distorted as they travel up and down the ladder of command. It is not just a matter of noise or random error. Self-interest and self-protection drop in, and relevant information drops out, as messages make stops along that vertical route. Sensitive leaders-aware of how difficult it can be for their people to speak truth to power-take steps to make speaking the truth as painless as possible. 9 The phenomenon of authoritarianism makes it impossible for any manager to be “just one of the guys,” Instead, every manager carefully has to deduce (infer, reason 推想) from informal signals the proper way to behave with this person or that. Where does power lie? Who is parking next to whom in the parking lot? Whos the first to speak after the CEO in meetings? An executive can pay a high price for missing such hierarchical cues （提示，暗示）. It is one of the costs that the people of hierarchies must pay for the rewards they receive. Pressure to remain constantly on the qui vive (alert, watchful) to avoid inadvertently （unconsciously） stepping on the wrong toes-rather than focusing on doing good work-has caused more than one manager eventually to ask, “Is this really the way I want to spend my life?” (10) We can not ignore a basic lesson: Authority clings to the managers role as skin clings to the body. Managers in hierarchies have no choice but to stay constantly alert to that reality. Successful executives know almost intuitively how to be both engaging （有吸引力，可爱） and authoritative. They know that authority is the immutable (unchangeable) baseline, the sine qua non (the necessary condition) of organizational life. They stay alert automatically and continuously to the relevant things of their surroundings. Almost unconsciously they ask themselves: “Am I, right now, in the presence of my superiors, my peers, or my subordinates? Have I adjusted my words, posture（姿态）, and tone of voice accordingly?
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