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A hierarchy is the traditional organizational structure that places people performing similar work into groups under a manager. The managers report to higher levels of authority until responsibility is centralized under the president or CEO at the top. The higher levels of the organizational structure delegate authority to make decisions to the lower levels, but when an unforeseen situation occurs, major decisions are made at the top. When the marketplace changes unpredictably, information about the change has to travel up the organization, and the resulting decisions have to travel down again to the working level. The hierarchy is slow to react in such quickly changing markets.