“The wise executive never looks upon organizational lines as being settled once and for all. He knows that a vital organization must keep growing and changing with the result that its structure must remain malleable. Get the best organization structure you can devise, but do not be afraid to change it for good reason: This seems to be the sound rule. On the other hand, beware of needless change, which will only result in upsetting and frustrating your employees until they become uncertain as to what their lines of authority actually are.”

Source: The Executive in Action, 1945, p. 168; as cited in Albert Lepawsky (1949), Administration, p. 408

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The wise executive never looks upon organizational lines as being settled once and for all. He knows that a vital organ…" by Marshall E. Dimock?
Marshall E. Dimock photo
Marshall E. Dimock 15
American writer 1903–1991

Related quotes

Paul DiMaggio photo

“Organizations may try to change constantly; but, after a certain point in the structuration of an organizational field, the aggregate effect of individual change is to lessen the extent of diversity within the field.”

Paul DiMaggio (1951) American sociologist

Source: "The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields," 1983, p. 148

Thomas Watson, Jr. photo
Rensis Likert photo
Fred Brooks photo

“Inertial pressures prevent most organizations from radically changing strategies and structures.”

Michael T. Hannan (1943) US-American sociologist of Stanford University

Source: Organizational ecology, 1989, p. 22

Neal Shusterman photo
Ilya Prigogine photo

“The threat lies in the realization that in our universe the security of stable, permanent rules are gone forever. We are living in a dangerous and uncertain world that inspires no blind confidence. Our hope arises from the knowledge that even small fluctuations may grow and change the overall structure. As a result, individual activity is not doomed to insignificance”

Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003) physical chemist

Source: Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature (1984), p. 313; Cited in: K.C. Laszlo (2001) The Evolution of Business: Learning, Innovation, and Sustainability for the 21st century. p. 10.

Related topics