Thursday, January 21, 2016

Hierarchy

What was I just saying about hierarchy? I said:
Should we listen equally to a political pundit and a cardiologist on how to handle someone having a heart attack. Very often hierarchies are incredibly useful and efficient.
And lo and behold this article in The Atlantic backs me up:
In fact, recent research seems to indicate that flattening workplace hierarchy is not only much more complicated than it seems, but that people prefer a pecking order. One Stanford study found that egalitarian work structures were disorienting. Workers found hierarchical companies were more predictable, and therefore preferable, because it was easy to figure out who did what and how compensation should be doled out. Another Stanford paper, which looked at why hierarchical structures in the workplace have such staying power, concluded perhaps the obvious: Hierarchies work. They are practical and psychologically comforting.

Exactly. And in any case you have to wonder how socialist/anarchists think they're going to do away with human hierarchies other than some kind of hard-core authoritarian enforcement mechanism.

In other news, Five Thirty Eight predicts Clinton has an 80% chance of winning Iowa.