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functions and task functions performed by the mass of agents. This is
an inalienable reality of all systems and arises from the very definition
of a system as a collection of interacting parts; it must by definition
have at least a 'parts' level that performs work and a system level to
represent the grouping. The larger the system (number of agents,
geographic spread) the greater the number of levels in the hierarchy
needed to coordinate work. This natural aspect of all systems becomes,
in human-based business systems, bound up with human issues of
power, which expresses itself in such realities of corporate life as
power, command and control, and office politics

Downward Causation: For a system as a whole to survive, system-
wide interests must override individual agent interests. This is
called downward causation. If this alignment of interests fails the
system will lose coherence and will likely die. Downward causation is
a universal phenomenon of complexity and systems. Inside a business
system, it is in the interests of all the agents for the firm to survive.
The socially-accepted existence of operational hierarchy (frozen into a
power structure) and the acceptance that the interests of the whole
must prevail is what has up until recently underpinned the command
structure inside traditional organizations. However, acceptance of the
need for the system-level interests to prevail begs the question of how
system-level interests are formulated. Historically, the system's
interests were in the hands of a leadership elite, socially-justified as
being the representatives of the owners (or the owners themselves).
Over the last half-century-plus, as business contexts have increasingly
demanded flexibility and flat-organizations and the effective use of
skills, the balance has started to shift to a greater involvement of the
mass of agents in the formulation of systems-level interests (for want
of an 'official' term, we could call this upward causation).

This interaction of upward and downward causation is also the root of
culture formation both in the context and inside business systems.
Adapt to Context: Business systems are bounded but open to
external inputs to a greater or lesser degree and sit within a context
composed of millions of agents and other systems. The context is in a
continuous state of change at a greater or lower tempo as the agents in
the context interact. A system must adapt to the context changes at
both the system and task levels (see Ashby's Law). Where changes
affect only the task level, each agent/task must align with those with

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