“The beginning of administrative wisdom is the awareness that there is no one optimum type of management system.”
Source: The Management of Innovation, 1961, p. 125
Context: We have endeavored to stress the appropriateness of each system to its own specific set of conditions. Equally, we desire to avoid the suggestion that either system is superior under all circumstances to the other. In particular, nothing in our experience justifies the assumption that mechanistic systems should be superseded by organic in conditions of stability. The beginning of administrative wisdom is the awareness that there is no one optimum type of management system.
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Tom Burns 8
British sociologist 1913–2001Related quotes

Göran Asplund (1975), Strategy formulation: an intervention study of a complex group decision process. p. 22

Source: Carlos Agostinho do Rosário (2021) cited in: " Mozambique: PM Swears Into Office New Permanent Secretaries https://allafrica.com/stories/202105050741.html" in All Africa, 5 May 2021.

“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.”
Wisdom
Source: One Minute Wisdom (1989)
“Kelly was aware that there is one type of favorable bet available to everyone; the stock market.”
Part One, Entropy, Minus Sign, p. 75
Fortune's Formula (2005)
Richard F. Ericson (1979) Improving the human condition: quality and stability in social systems : proceedings of the Silver Anniversary International Meeting, London, England, August 20-24, 1979. Society for General Systems Research. p. 621
Source: 1940s - 1950s, Introduction to Operations Research (1957), p. 8, cited in: R.L. McCown (2001) "Learning to bridge the gap between science-based decision support and the practice of farming". In: Aust. J. Agric. Res., Vol 52, p. 560-561

Source: Principles of Scientific Management, 1911, p. 87 (2014 ed.).
Source: Introduction to the Study of Public Administration, 1926, p. 5

Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
Source: Why I Am An Agnostic and Other Essays