SAP HR apparently has several models for describing the relationship between Position (S), Job (C), Organization (O) and Person (P) objects that the Organizational Management (OM) module is used to maintain.
P (Person) objects are usually Holders of Positions (S).
There is the S-S relationship model, which I am told is called Supervisory model. That is each Position reports to another position, and one of the positions is considered a manager.
There is another model whose name I am trying to locate, where the structure of Organizational reporting is between O objects first, in a tree structure. At each node, the S objects belong to the O object, with one of them flagged as the Manager.
No doubt there are other models, and if you know what they are called, and how they work, that would be very useful!
My perspective on this question is while trying to implement a Novell Identity Manager driver from SAP HR into an eDirectory identity vault, from there to provision users into Active Directory and Lotus Notes.
One of the key drivers for the project is the manager and directReports structure, so that Managers can all be identified, and the reporting structure visualized. Thus the importance of the SAP HR relationship modelling.