Source: Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics (1948), Chapter titled: The Imperative of Our Age, p. 111 Noontide Press edition.
“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
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Tom Burns 8
British sociologist 1913–2001Related quotes
Variant: [Integration is defined as] the process of achieving unity of effort among the various subsystems in the accomplishment of the organization's task.
Source: Organization and environment: Managing differentiation and integration, 1967, p. 4
Lynne G. Zucker (1987). "Institutional Theories of Organization," In: Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 13: 443-464

Source: Systems Design of Education (1991), p. 20
Source: Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, 1957, p. 8
Source: Organizations in Action, 1967, p. 36-37; As cited in: Christopher A. Simon (2001). To Run a School: Administrative Organization and Learning, p. 40
Hofstede (1997, p. 28) Anthony Henry (2008) Understanding Strategic Management. p. 359.

In the Name of Sanity (1954)
Context: Today, all the normal mischances of living have been multiplied, a million-fold, by the potentialities for destruction, for an unthinking act of collective suicide, which man's very triumphs in science and invention have brought about. In this situation the artist has a special task and duty: the task of reminding men of their humanity and the promise of their creativity.

"The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages" (1931) in Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics: Papers from 1923 to 1938 (1956) Tr. J. H. Woodger.