[belugin]

А еще CTE (они, кстати, появились в MS SQL 2005) можно определять рекурсивно:

WITH DirectReports(ManagerID, EmployeeID, EmployeeLevel) AS 
(
    SELECT ManagerID, EmployeeID, 0 AS EmployeeLevel
    FROM HumanResources.Employee
    WHERE ManagerID IS NULL
    UNION ALL
    SELECT e.ManagerID, e.EmployeeID, EmployeeLevel + 1
    FROM HumanResources.Employee e
        INNER JOIN DirectReports d
        ON e.ManagerID = d.EmployeeID 
)
SELECT ManagerID, EmployeeID, EmployeeLevel 
FROM DirectReports ;