30,000 Himalayan Climbers Answer the Question – Is Hierarchy Good?

No one likes to bossed around! But a first-of-its-kind analysis of more than 5,000 mountain-climbing expeditions shows how hierarchies are essential for productivity and can have a positive impact on success rates, whether on a mountain or within an office

Is hierarchy in groups good, or bad? In a word: yes, according to new research from management researchers at INSEAD and Columbia Business School.

The researchers analysed more than 30,000 Himalayan climbers and 5,000 expeditions over the past 100 years to assess the impact that hierarchical cultures can have in high-pressure group situations. The implications go far beyond the side of a mountain and can resonate from the boardroom to the operating room.

The research, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that a strong hierarchy can increase both summit and fatality rates in the Himalayas. Clear hierarchies help groups achieve the best outcomes by offering coordination, organization, and less conflict during high-pressure situations.

Even firms that strive for organisational flatness have discovered the importance of hierarchy for helping groups accomplish their goals. An experiment at Google that eliminated managers lasted only a few months. Google quickly realised that it needed some hierarchy to help set strategy and facilitate collaboration. “These processes explain why a strong hierarchy can help expeditions reach the top of the mountain: like the symphonic movement of a beehive, hierarchy helps the group become more than the sum of its parts,” said Professor Roderick Swaab of INSEAD.

However, hierarchy can also create an environment that inhibits low-ranking team members from speaking up and sharing their valuable and critical insights…this lack of voice can contribute to catastrophic results

However, hierarchy can also create an environment that inhibits low-ranking team members from speaking up and sharing their valuable and critical insights. In the case of mountain climbers who must deal with changing environments and the integration of lots of different data, the research team – which includes Swaab of INSEAD and Eric Anicich and Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School – found that this lack of voice can contribute to catastrophic results.

What’s the right balance of hierarchy for success?

“Our findings show that hierarchy can simultaneously improve and undermine group performance,” said Galinsky. “The key to finding the right balance in a hierarchy is identifying the barriers that keep lower-ranking team members from voicing their perspective and providing them with opportunities for empowerment, like owning a task, or having authority over a specific initiative.

Take surgical teams: the surgeon needs to be in charge to facilitate coordination. But lower-power members of the team also need to be able to speak up. This is why surgery teams put nurses in charge of the all-important check-list of procedures.”

The key to finding the right balance in a hierarchy is identifying the barriers that keep lower-ranking team members from voicing their perspective and providing them with opportunities for empowerment, like owning a task, or having authority over a specific initiative

In addition to these structural interventions, Swaab added that “leaders also need to set clear norms that produce a constructive dialogue, especially since hierarchical values are hard to change once adopted.”

The Research

The study analysed all expeditions that have gone up the Himalayas over the past 100 years, totaling 30,625 Himalayan mountain climbers from 56 countries on 5,104 expeditions. Findings and analyses took into consideration environmental factors, risk preferences, expedition-level characteristics, country-level characteristics and other cultural values. Further, the research results only applied to groups, not solo expeditions, demonstrating that group processes are essential for the true effects of hierarchy to emerge.