When the Financial Times was auctioning off lunch with journalists for its seasonal charity appeal a few years ago, someone had the bright idea of advertising the “lots” as decorations on a Christmas tree: the editor was at the top, and other writers dangled from the descending branches.

I doubt any organisation has published a more blunt, bauble-based depiction of its hierarchy. Plenty have a less festive version, though: the organigram — or org chart — with the boss on top and minions branching off by seniority and reporting lines.

Half of a small group of personnel directors I asked think such diagrams are an uncomfortable straitjacket, a loathed compliance obligation, a hindrance to more natural interaction between colleagues, or all three. Aaron Dignan of The Ready, a consultancy that helps companies such as Lloyds Bank and General Electric change structure and culture, calls them “the dirty secret” of human resources. They always come “with the caveat that they aren’t true”.