Tom Burns: Other

Tom Burns was British sociologist. Explore interesting quotes on other.

Tom Burns: 16 quotes0 likes

“The risks attendant upon change may have to be weighed against other risks arising from maintaining the same state of affairs.”

Source: The Management of Innovation, 1961, p. 21

“What is essential is that nothing should inhibit individuals from applying to others for information and advice, or for additional effort. This in turn depends on the ability to suppress differences of status and of technical prestige on occasions of working interaction, and on the absence of barriers to communication founded on functional preserves, privilege, or personal reserve.”

The Management of Innovation, 1961

“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.”

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