This chapter of the book "The Functions of the Executive," by Chester I. Barnard (1938), presents a general description of complex organizations, particularly from a structural standpoint. Overlaying or embedded in the complex of formal organizations is a network of formal organizations. Examining this network illustrates that there are a few strands of formal organization that are dominant and relatively comprehensive, all other formal organizations being directly or indirectly attached to and subordinate to them. They are of two types: churches and states. Barnard concludes that there are no single formal organizations that are dominant, except in primitive isolated societies; but that there exist in any territory or among any people churches and states to which all other organizations are formally subordinate. This subordination may be exclusive either to a church or to the state, or it may relate to both simultaneously. The chapter also indicates the way in which the elementary features of organization govern the evolution and growth of these complex systems. If new organizations are observed, Barnard indicates that they have originated by one or another of four different methods: (1) spontaneous; (2) the direct result of an individual's effort to organize; (3) infant bodies set off by an existing parent organization; or (4) the result of segmentation of existing organizations caused by schism, rebellion, or the interposition of an external force.