How Does Hierarchy Steepness Affect Coordination in Project-Based Organizations? A Social Network Analysis

This study aims to reveal the impacts of hierarchy steepness on intraorganizational coordination in project-based organizations (PBOs) at both organizational and individual levels. We discovered that hierarchy steepness has a positive correlation with organizational coordination intensity but a negative correlation with an individual's coordination power. A steeper hierarchy is beneficial for intraorganizational coordination so, averagely, an individual's coordination power weakens in well-coordinated organizations. The findings refuted previous arguments that took hierarchy as an obstacle to coordination and proved the functionality of a steeper hierarchy. They suggest PBOs steepen the hierarchical structure to improve intraorganizational coordination.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the impact of hierarchy steepness on intra-organizational coordination in project-based organizations (PBOs). The results showed that hierarchy steepness had a positive relationship with organizational coordination intensity, but a negative relationship with individual coordination power. These findings challenged the previous notion that hierarchy hinders coordination and highlighted the benefits of a steeper hierarchy. The implications suggest that PBOs should consider strengthening their hierarchical structure to improve intra-organizational coordination.