A command hierarchy is a group of people committed to carrying out orders "from the top", that is, of authority. It is part of a power structure: usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part of it. In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ... A hierarchy (in Greek hieros = sacred, arkho = rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things. ...

In sociology

In sociology it is seen as the most visible element of a power network, which itself usually organizes many social networks. The entire network has social capital which is mobilized in response to the orders that move through the hierarchy - and closely controlled. This leads to the phrase command and control. Sociology is the study of the social lives of humans, groups, and societies, sometimes defined as the study of social interactions. ... A social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. ... Social capital refers to the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other, according to Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and the concepts leading exponent (though not its originator). ... In telecommunication, command and control (C 2 ) is the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission. ...

Communications

In the military the term CCC is sometimes used to include "communications" as the "third C": Command, Control, and Communication. Since military situations involve disrupted, hurried, confused or deliberately intercepted and altered communications - see signals warfare and information warfare, and also a degree of manipulation of emotion - see psychological warfare - it is important that communications be closely monitored to ensure that command actually results in control. Possibly the most extensive studies of this were in the Cold War when both the USA and USSR put great effort into ensuring that their strategic missile forces were under full control and that communications to them could not be interfered with, disrupted, or manipulated in any way. CCC stands for: California Conservation Corps Camden County College Campus Crusade for Christ Canadian computing competition Cardiff County Council Carlito Caribbean Cool Carmarthenshire County Council Cartesian closed category Catechism of the Catholic Church - an exposition of Roman Catholic Church teachings Chaos Computer Club Civilian Conservation Corps - a New Deal program... The military science term Command, Control, and Communication or CCC or C3 designates a communications network or signal infrastructure under the direct command and control of a military command hierarchy. ... In telecommunication, command and control warfare (C 2 W) is the integrated use of operations security (OPSEC), military deception, psychological operations (PSYOP), electronic warfare (EW), and physical destruction, mutually supported by intelligence, to deny information to, influence, degrade, or destroy adversary command and control capabilities, while protecting friendly command and... Information warfare is a new kind of warfare where information and attacks on information and its system are used as a tool of warfare. ... The U.S. Department of Defense defines psychological warfare (PSYWAR) as: The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives. ... A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, acts of espionage or conflict through surrogates. ...

Common features of a command hierarchy

Regardless of the degree of control or results achieved, and regardless of how the hierarchy is justified and rationalized, certain aspects of a command hierarchy tend to be similar:

• rank - especially military rank - "who outranks whom" in the power structure
• strict accountability - those who issue orders are responsible for the consequences, not those who carry them out
• strict feedback rules - complaints go up the hierarchy to those with power to deal with them, not down to those who do not have that power
• detailed rules for decision making - what criteria apply and when
• some ethics and key beliefs in common, usually enforced as early as recruiting and screening of recruits

Generally, rank is a system of hierarchy used to classify like things. ... Military rank, or simply rank, is a system of grading seniority and command within military organizations. ... A hierarchy (in Greek hieros = sacred, arkho = rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things. ... Accountability has several meanings and is the subject of a broad debate in American governance. ... In cybernetics and control theory, feedback is a process whereby some proportion or in general, function, of the output signal of a system is passed (fed back) to the input. ... Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ...

Problems with command hierarchy

However, people of such compatible views often have similar systemic biases, due to being from the same culture. Such problems as groupthink or willingness to accept one standard of evidence internal to the group, but require drastically higher evidence from outside, are common. In part to address these problems: A systemic bias is a bias which is endemic in a system – especially a human system – making it tend to err consistently in a certain direction. ... Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972 to describe a process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. ...

Much modern management science has focused on reducing reliance on command hierarchy especially for information flow, since the cost of communications is now low, and the cost of management mistakes is higher - especially under globalization - than at any point in the past. It is also easier to replace managers, so they have a personal interest in more distributed responsibility and perhaps more consensus decision making. Management science, or MS, is the discipline of using mathematics, and other analytical methods, to help make better business decisions. ... In discourse-based grammatical theory, information flow is any tracking of referential information by speakers. ... Globalization (or globalisation) is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that are the result of dramatically increased trade and cultural exchange. ... Management (from Old French ménagement the art of conducting, directing, from Latin manu agere to lead by the hand) characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ... Consensus decision-making is a decision process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision. ...