Energy Flow in Biology: Biological Organization as a Problem in Thermal Physics (1968), p. 2.
Italics are in the original. Later quoted on the inside front cover of The Last Whole Earth Catalog.
“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.”
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.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Tom Burns 8
British sociologist 1913–2001Related quotes
Anatol Rapoport (1969) in: Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist. p. 139
1960s

The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution (1995)
Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 236; Cited in: Best (1990, p. 48).
Source: 1950s, Problems of Life (1952, 1960), p. 52)

themselves informational
Source: The structuring of organizations (1979), p. 35

“Freedom is the flow of life/ It is to be part of it/ And to let life flow through you.”
Freedom: Foster It! p. 34.
Freedom: Foster it! (2004)

River out of Eden (1995)

“Happiness doesn't just flow from success; it actually causes it.”
Source: 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot