Systems
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informal habits that can dominate with local decision making for exceptions.
Yet, in spite of these exceptions, the group’s consensus is both tolerant and
forgiving of local decisions. An example of a syndicate power structure is the
World Wide Web. The governance is fundamentally through protocols and
policy implemented through standards which represent central governance.
The users of the web participate and by their adherence and compliance
with the standards and protocols they participate with the common goal of
accessing valuable resources. Power is locally managed by independent
subsystems (web portals, as objects) which have local authority to grant and
provide access to valuable resources.
The aggregate is exampled by a football team or a group of doctors who
are the managers of a private hospital. Each member of the football team
(object) can arrange for a few complimentary seats (or if that is in keeping
with the team’s policies, then a few complimentary season tickets in the most
sought-after seats). Individual members of the governing board of doctors
may arrange for a private room, when otherwise there would be no preferential treatment. The staffs of both organizations accede to such requests in
part because it is considered acceptable behavior for key personnel or there
may be an implied coerciveness about the demand (request) that is made.
The Internet does not exhibit the power structure of an aggregate organization because its central governance regulates the broad policy for accessing
all resources as a necessary condition (but it is not sufficient in the main to
access all valuable resources). Power structures that have a distributed quality are not items, and those whose distributed nature does not represent the
interests of the requestors for access are not aggregates. And those power
structures that have a distributed quality that does not represent the interests of the requestors for access and that does not have access to all valuable
resources is not an agglomerate.
The agglomerate is a combination of the syndicate’s and the aggregate’s
organizational power structures. The agglomerate has centralized control
and governance for those issues that have significance in binding the subsystems together, similar to a syndicate’s power structure. But the subsystems act as autonomously as possible within the limits imposed by policy,
similar to an aggregate power structure. An example of an agglomerate is a
multinational corporation that is contracted with suppliers competing to
provide parts on a competitive basis. The suppliers are integrated into an
inventory management system (perhaps just-in-time delivery-style supply
chain) to facilitate a significant reduction in the inventory that must be
stocked to support production. The suppliers retain their autonomy and
independence, while participating in a metafunction at the system of
systems level. The approach taken by the subsystems is to gain special
favors that are made available by decision makers in the multinational
corporation.
Countries exhibit organizational behaviors that are consistent with a system of systems power structures. Singapore presents an item-like power