We use a newly developed metric to characterize asymmetric temporal interdependencies in networks of coupled dynamical elements. We studied the formation of temporal ordering in a system of coupled Rossler oscillators for different connectivity ratios and network topologies and also applied the metric to investigate the functional structure of a biological network (cerebral ganglia of Helix snail). In the former example we show how the local ordering evolves to the global one as a function of structural parameters of the network, while in the latter we show spontaneous emergence of functional interdependence between two groups of electrodes. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.