Important organizations with Courtesy Rank for standard ranks

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Based on a point brought up in another thread:

I'm not sure how true this is, but it's an interesting thought. Can you have an organization which is important in a society, one that has some degree of Legal Enforcement Powers or otherwise rights or authority that most people and groups in the same society don't have, where most or perhaps all formal ranks are covered by Courtesy Rank? If so, what effect does this have on a society, and on the organization?

<snip>

Thoughts?

An organization with only courtesy rank can't really function as an organization. You could have something like the Sikhs, who are occasionally appealed to for justice by non-Sikhs, in India and Pakistan (according to one Sikh I met) but that's at an individual level. Anything larger depends on the sense of duty (which may be Sense of Duty or an actual Duty in GURPS terms) and fear of the approbation of fellow members for any larger or continuing action.

One thing that does get overlooked by persons that don't have military backgrounds is that what people are calling real rank isn't all-authoritative. It applies only in the chain of command. Giving an order to someone outside your chain of command may result in the order being ignored, or followed and resulting in being called on the carpet by your superior, who got an earful from his opposite number in the chain of command about one of his people overstepping his authority.

That said, let's take a look at the "real" ranks of Starfleet. At the top, we have the various Admirals and Commodores that the Captains answer to. Below them, we have the "Skippers", these are the persons who have full authority over a ship, whether they are Captains, Commanders, or Lt. Commanders. Below them are the Department Heads. These have responsibility for a certain function of the ship, be it medical, engineering or communications and may have the right to sit in the Skipper's seat during his absence and are Commanders and Lt. Commanders acting in a staff role. This would also cover Captains acting as staff to an Admiral. Below them are the Officers, mostly Lieutenants and Ensigns, who can command small independent parties of the crew, such as an away team. Below them are the "Chiefs" who are responsible for a small team, and finally, there are the "Crewmen" who do the actual grunt work.

That makes five non-courtesy Ranks:
Rank 5: Admiral
Rank 4: Skipper
Rank 3: Department Head
Rank 2: Officer
Rank 1: Chief
Rank 0: Crewman

I think the proposal for courtesy ranks is probably overblown. As for how a society's organizations would work if the only ranks were courtesy ranks, the answer would have to be nothing like a society where ranks are substantive. Either an organization has to be able to get things done and will use something other than rank to ensure that what needs to happen does or the organization and society at large will have to accept that some things won't get done or will fall through the cracks and that is just "the way things are."