Organizational layering: what it is and what it means

Organizational layering is the process by which a model emerges in the company without an explicit choice: the structure forms through an accumulation of past decisions — hires, promotions, partial delegations — that have built up over time without a deliberate design. In the absence of conscious design, every addition to the structure responds to an immediate urgency. The observable effect is a structure that belongs to the company's previous phase, not to the current one.

Distinctive: accumulation of past decisions
Distinctive: without an explicit choice
Essential: built up over time without a deliberate design
Essential: in the absence of conscious design
Constant: structure that belongs to the company's previous phase

Glossary

Organizational layering

A process in which an organizational model emerges without an explicit choice, through an accumulation of past decisions that have built up over time without a deliberate design.