Distinguishing between process entropy and structural entropy in hierarchical organisations.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17979/ja-cea.2026.47.13838Keywords:
Information Theory, Entropy, Complexity, Hierarchical control, Decision makingAbstract
This paper analyses the use of entropy as a measure of complexity in hierarchical organisational systems, distinguishing between two levels: process entropy and structural entropy. The former is interpreted as probabilistic uncertainty associated with decision configurations, whereas the latter is understood as the combinatorial multiplicity of admissible hierarchical configurations. Based on Shannon’s formulation and structural models of rooted trees, an operational formalisation is proposed to differentiate both mechanisms of complexity reduction. The analysis is illustrated through an example applied to an academic
organisation, where a simplified institutional structure and a curriculum structure composed of modules and courses are represented. The results show that hierarchy may reduce complexity either through decision aggregation or through restriction of the
structural configuration space, although both mechanisms refer to different analytical objects.
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