Chain of Command
Rick Piraino
The “chain of command” refers to the progressive vertical relationships in an organization. The higher up we go on the chain, the more we see positions endowed with greater responsibilities to manage others, make decisions, allocate funds and resources, etc. The chain is critical in terms of creating and maintaining clear lines of authority and responsibility. In general, we want to keep management authority as close to the work that is being done as possible because, by definition, those higher up the chain have more responsibility and therefore less time for or contact with the day-to-day work at lower levels.