# department (organizational)

a section of a system that organizes people and resources to do a role

- Computed level: L16 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: emergence  ·  Arena: department

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [section](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-section.portion), [groups](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-groups.collection), [role](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-role.social), [organized](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-organized.structure), [people](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-people.social), [resource](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-resource.material), [system](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-system.organized)

**Through:** the collection of people and resources organized in a persistent structure around a social role forms a section of a larger organized system

**Novel properties:**
- functional specialization
- organized boundary maintenance
- role-governed resource flow

## Examples
- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory operates the Deep Space Network to maintain contact with interplanetary missions. *(engineering)*
- The New York City Department of Sanitation collects 10,000 tons of waste daily from city blocks. *(institutions)*
- Amazon's fulfillment centers use automated sorting departments to process 100 packages per minute during peak seasons. *(economics)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-department.organizational*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-department.organizational.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*