Coordination and delay in hierarchies
研究层级组织中快速执行的重要性，分析协调下属时间与管控幅度随层级上升的变化，以及专业化收益和紧迫性对组织扁平化的影响。
This article studies hierarchical organizations where concerns for fast execution are important and employees must be coordinated to avoid wasteful duplications of effort. Simple conditions are provided for the time spent on coordinating subordinates to be increasing and the span of control to be decreasing as one goes up the hierarchy, with equalities holding if delay is all that matters. When returns to specialization are substantial, the span of control also tends to widen and the hierarchy to flatten as urgency increases. The model suggests that concerns for fast execution may be key in explaining recent trends toward decentralization and delayering in firms.