Despite these barriers it was reported of one top executive:

Other writers think it is a common mistake to imagine that all organizational ailments can be cured by large doses of official communication. Many wellpublicized 'communication improvement' and 'management information' programmes are ineffective because they overload the formal system. It would seem that effective organizational functioning depends not upon a maximum but on an optimum of information exchange. The communication studies mentioned already amply illustrate that once a hierarchy of virtually any kind comes into existence, information exchange is no longer 'free' but restricted; shaped, and con!folled. The moment a task is delegated the administrator is to some extent insulated from some important aspects of that task. The point is that he not only is insulated but should be. Professor Jaques, who did some highly praised work with the Glacier Metal Company, emphasizes that certain barriers
, to communication frequency are actually necessary if an organization is to get its business done. He refers to 'adaptive segregation' as the automatic process by which barriers are set up, more or less by mutual consent, by sections or levels of a company to keep channels clear for crucial information.
Despite these barriers it was reported of one top executive: "In the sheer volume of all activities demanded of him, verbal interaction is the number one form of contact, consuming upward of 80 per cent of all the executives' time... only 12 times in 35 days of observation was this chief executive able to work undisturbed alone in his office during intervals of 23 minutes or longer.
This seems to be general in industry as identical findings have been reported in America, Sweden, and