Chester Barnard Quotes & Sayings

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

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

A low morality will not sustain leadership long, its influence quickly vanishes, it cannot produce its own succession. — Chester Barnard

Left to themselves, people will elaborate, not simplify solutions. — Chester Barnard

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

The executive art is nine-tenths inducing those who have authority to use it in taking pertinent action — Chester Barnard

I think we left out one of the really important elements contributing to the dynamism of society, and that is the right to privacy. I mean something more than the right to shave in private. I mean the right to join what I want to join, to do what I want to do, or not to do what I might do without giving anyone a reason, either in advance or afterwards. That does not mean that I am seeking for irresponsibility socially. — Chester Barnard

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

Successful cooperation in or by formal organizations is the abnormal, not the normal, condition. — Chester Barnard

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