Tom Burns: Organ

Tom Burns was British sociologist. Explore interesting quotes on organ.
Tom Burns: 16   quotes 0   likes

“Management, often visualized as the complex hierarchy which is familiar in organization charts, operates a simple control system, with information flowing up through a succession of filters, and decisions and instructions flowing downwards through a succession of amplifiers.”

Tom Burns

Source: The Management of Innovation, 1961, p. 5; as cited in: David Dugdale, Stephen Lyne. Budgeting Practice and Organisational Structure. Elsevier, 18 jan. 2010. p. 68-69
Context: In mechanistic systems the problems and tasks facing the concern as a whole are broken down into specialisms. Each individual pursues his task as something distinct from the real tasks of the concern as a whole, as if it were the subject of a subcontract. "Somebody at the top" is responsible for seeing to its relevance. The technical methods, duties, and powers attached to each functional role are precisely defined. Interaction within management tends to be vertical, i. e., between superior and subordinate... Management, often visualized as the complex hierarchy which is familiar in organization charts, operates a simple control system, with information flowing up through a succession of filters, and decisions and instructions flowing downwards through a succession of amplifiers.

Decision , Success

“The effective organization of industrial resources… alters in important respects in conformity with changes in extrinsic factors.”

Tom Burns

Source: The Management of Innovation, 1961, p. 96, as cited in: Richard Whittington (2014), Corporate Strategies in Recession and Recovery, p. 40

Change

“Organic systems are adapted to unstable conditions, when problems and requirements for action arise which cannot be broken down and distributed among specialist roles within a clearly defined hierarchy. Individuals have to perform their special tasks in the light of their knowledge of the tasks of the firm as a whole. Jobs lose much of their formal definition in terms of methods, duties, and powers, which have to be re¬defined continually by interaction with others participating in a task. Interaction runs laterally as much as vertically. Communication between people of different ranks tends to resemble lateral consultation rather than vertical command. Omniscience can no longer be imputed to the head of the concern.”

Tom Burns

Source: The Management of Innovation, 1961, p. 5-6

People , Communication , Knowledge , Problem