&gt; If no one has the ability to listen to the differing opinions of the group and then initiate a course of action by deciding on one or more of the available paths, there are plenty of cases where no consensus is reached and everything goes in a bunch of different directions at once<p>Organizational structures without hierarchical authority structures, e.g. network models, don&#x27;t necessarily rely on consensus; they may well have distributed authority where decisions can be made at the point in the organization where the issue is encountered, rather than being kicked up a hierarchy until it reaches someone authorized to make it.<p>&gt; Now, hierarchy may not produce the most correct decision making, but it does produce decision making (not even &quot;quick decision making&quot;, just &quot;decision making&quot;). Nonhierarchical organizations can&#x27;t guarantee that.<p>I don&#x27;t see any evidence that that is particular true of hierarchy as opposed to non-hierarchical organizations. Hierarchical organizations are certainly not incapable of analysis paralysis; having a hierarchy doesn&#x27;t guarantee a decision.<p>Hierarchies might promote <i>consistency</i> in the decisions that do get made, but that&#x27;s a different issue.