Part of the reason that organizations, such as corporations, became
hierarchical is due to an accident of history. Namely, at the time these
organizations began to form, the only comparably-sized organizations were
European armies and the Roman Catholic Church, and the developing
organizations used these as role models, even though the structures of the
military and the RCC were adaptations to highly specific roles that didn't
really correspond all that well with the roles of the new organizations.
Eric Bohlman (ebohlman@netcom.com)