Hierarchies and Networks - friends, foes, allies?

I've found myself thinking about the balance between hierarchies and networks for some time, as we witness power moving from the top of hierarchies towards the centre of networks as our world becomes more complex.  

It is easy to get tempted into binary thinking, as though one is better than the other. The reality is that they are in a relationship, and both are important. We get ourselves into hot water when we honour one more than the other, and over the last century, we have done that as "scale" became a mantra, and scientific management became a religion.   

As I was playing with the idea, I came across this abstract from a 1967 research paper on political economy that made me think:

There is a great deal of evidence that almost all organizational structures tend to produce false images in the decision-maker, and that the larger and more authoritarian the organization, the better the chance that its top decision-makers will be operating in purely imaginary worlds. This perhaps is the…