AN OVERVIEW OF THE LOGIC AND RATIONALE OF HIERARCHICAL LINEAR-MODELS

Due to the inherently hierarchical nature of organizations, data colle cted in organizations consist of nested entities. More specifically in dividuals are nested in work groups, work groups are nested in departm ents, departments are nested in organizations, and organizations are n ested in environments. Hierarchical linear models provide a conceptual and statistical mechanism for investigating and drawing conclusions r egarding the influence of phenomena at different levels of analysis. T his introductory paper: (a) discusses the logic and rationale of hiera rchical linear models, (b) presents a conceptual description of the es timation strategy, and (c) using a hypothetical set of research questi ons, provides an overview of a typical series of multi-level models th at might be investigated.