The more society has advanced, the more we’ve grown to acknowledge the importance of equality. Yet, even as we attempt to organize our homes, workplaces, and communities in increasingly egalitarian ways, our behavior reveals a competing urge. As Deborah H. Gruenfeld, The Joseph McDonald Professor and Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business observes, wherever there are humans, there are hierarchies. “People have a tendency to form hierarchies almost instantly in all kinds of organizational settings, whether the task requires it or not,” she says.
“One of the ways in which we’re like animals is that we need to organize ourselves in order to survive,” says Gruenfeld, who studies group dynamics and decision-making. “It’s a very basic instinct to create structures in groups that help members coordinate so they don’t have to fight with one another.”
In addition to helping us cooperate, hierarchies also create much-needed psychological safety. “We are desperate to belong in groups,” Gruenfeld says. It’s a “source of security to know who’s responsible for what, who’s going to lead, who’s going to follow, and it gives everyone a script to follow so they know how to behave in a way that’s going to keep them on the inside in the group.”
Gruenfeld’s insights open a discussion about how we can modify existing hierarchies to create relationships, organizations, and the society we want. As this episode of If/Then explores, if we want to change power structures, then we need to understand the animal forces that drive our behavior. Click HERE or on the image below to listen to the podcast.
