While a network may adopt centralized or decentralized governance, each organization will also have their own mechanism to control who makes decisions. Typically, organizations will rely internally on centralized governance. The implication of this is that we need to consider not only network governance, but also each organization's structure, as shown in the following diagram:
In a centralized model, decisions tend to flow from top to bottom, and only unresolved issues at the lower tiers of the organization percolate to the top. This creates a framework where there is a clear-cut process to deal with problems and vision, but which leaves little room for changes in structure.
In this model, we typically see three major layers of governance:
- Strategic governance
- Operational governance
- Tactical governance
The next subsections will define each one and explore the types of decision makers for each layer.