A first representation is provided of privileges among a plurality of tenants of a system. The tenants have relationships according to a hierarchy that includes multiple hierarchical levels of the tenants, where at least one of the privileges specifies a permission of a first tenant to perform a task with respect to a second tenant. The first representation is independent of a representation of the relationships among the plurality of tenants. In response to a request from the first tenant to perform a task with respect to the second tenant, a system determines, based on the first representation, whether the first tenant is permitted to perform the task with respect to the second tenant.