Chester Barnard Quotes

#1. Organizations endure, however, in proportion to the breadth of the morality by which they are governed. Thus the endurance of organization depends upon the quality of leadership; and that quality derives from the breadth of the morality upon which it rests.

Chester Barnard

#2. A low morality will not sustain leadership long, its influence quickly vanishes, it cannot produce its own succession.

Chester Barnard

#3. The executive art is nine-tenths inducing those who have authority to use it in taking pertinent action

Chester Barnard

#4. A formal and orderly conception of the whole is rarely present, perhaps even rarely possible, except to a few men of exceptional genius.

Chester Barnard

#5. To try and fail is at least to learn; to fail to try is to suffer the inestimable loss of what might have been.

Chester Barnard

#6. Left to themselves, people will elaborate, not simplify solutions.

Chester Barnard

#7. The fine art of executive decision consists in not deciding questions that are not now pertinent, in not deciding prematurely, in not making decisions that cannot be made effective, and in not making decisions that others should make.

Chester Barnard

#8. The responsibility of the executive is (1) to create and maintain a sense of purpose and moral code for the organization; (2) to establish systems of formal and informal communication; and (3) to ensure the willingness of people to cooperate.

Chester Barnard

#9. Successful cooperation in or by formal organizations is the abnormal, not the normal, condition.

Chester Barnard