Subordination

Subordination — following the rule «junior must respect elders, and subordinates — superiors.» Initially, the word subordination meant the subordination and obedience of soldiers in the army to the chief, today it is understood more broadly, not just direct subordination, but also behavior demonstrating respect for seniors in rank, status or position. Observance of subordination is an obligatory part of the format in senior-junior relations.

If a student at school in public turned to the head teacher: “Verunchik!”, This is a violation of subordination. Sometimes this is done out of stupidity, sometimes due to a lack of education, sometimes it is a provocation.

Not everyone who violates the chain of command does it intentionally: sometimes people just get carried away and do not notice what and how they say and do. For example, an employee in front of employees shows slides of a presentation that he prepared for an exhibition on the screen. The manager suggested changing the color of the number in the slides of the presentation, saying: “blue is not visible”, to which the employee cheerfully replied: “But we are not interested in blue!”. A joke, but inappropriate, therefore conflictogenic. Joking when the leader expects a serious discussion is a violation of subordination.

If someone behaves inappropriately with the Elders, then the Elder can immediately give instructions on how to behave. The more clearly and calmly (without shouting and indignation) the instruction is given, the more likely it will be understood and executed. If it didn’t work right away, you can repeat it again, just as calmly and even more separately, carefully looking into your eyes.

Subordination is a natural, necessary and useful thing that helps to ensure the elementary order and efficiency of activities. If the soldiers, receiving orders from the command, instead of following them, begin to discuss and comment on the orders, it will end badly: this military unit will soon be simply destroyed, everyone will die: both the soldiers and the command, who committed a violation of subordination.

On the other hand, subordination can sometimes be superfluous and inappropriate. If the leader needs his subordinate to boldly discuss this or that plan, to criticize his considerations, he can offer to put the subordination aside for the duration of such a discussion. When and to what extent subordination is appropriate, only the leader decides when it will be included in his plans. Relationships where subordination is completely absent are called “familiarity”.