ABSTRACT
Communication is a social process of the broadest relevance in the functioning of any group, organization, or society. The glorification of a full and free information flow is a healthy step forward in intraorganizational problems as well as in the relations of an organization to the larger social system. In terms of information theory, unrestricted communication produces noise in the system. Communications, then, must be transmitted in general enough terms to permit modification within each of managerial and technical levels. The same type of translation problem occurs between any pair of substructures having their own functions and their own coding schema. Without adequate translation across subsystem boundaries, communications can add to the noise in the system. Similarly the transformation of energy depends upon communication between people in each organizational subsystem and upon communication between subsystems. The complex suprasystem has all the properties of a subsystem plus communication across the boundaries of subsystems.
