It is however entirely possible for more than one person to cooperate in ownership of a given property, symbolized as follows:

Each of the owners in this case knows that he or she does not fully own the entire property, but shares his ownership with another (partnership) in an arrangement where the extent and limits of the property and the ownership and control of the object and/or its parts or results are clearly defined and understood.

This model can be extended to include many partners or even thousands of stockholders.  It is of course true that partnerships and stock ownership can and often do lead to conflict when questions or disagreement about management or utilization of the total property arise.

Vertical lines running from person (owner) to property indicate the lines of authority.  Later on when we discuss the concept of power, we will show how the lines of authority and the lines symbolizing power differ.

Go to next lesson ... >>