I don't see a way to create a hierarchy from a table that just shows employee and manager.

Is there a way to handle the recursion for any number of levels, so I could have one table that has: 

employee   manager
bill              mary
mary           jane
jane            bob

and from there I can make sure that jane can see the performance review of bill, for example.  How can I start with the above table, with any number of relationships, and end with a table that has:

employee   manager1_   _manager2_   _manager3_
bill              mary           jane             bob

(As an aside, I have exactly the same problem with serial numbers on parts, that roll up to assemblies with a new serial number, but those assemblies roll together into larger assemblies with a new serial number, with N levels.)

All help greatly appreciated!