Marshall E. Dimock Quote

In some organizations where staff assistance is overemphasized, from the standpoint of both the influence and the number of staff officials, the chief executive is likely to be cut off from his department heads. An executive should never lose sight of the fact that his closest contacts must be with the heads of the operating departments, and that it is upon them more than any others that the success of the program depends. If he permits himself to become cloistered because of the more favored position of the staff officials, the morale and driving force of the program will be impaired.

pp. 102-104, as cited in Albert Lepawsky (1949), Administration, p. 306-7 - "The Meshing of Line and Staff", 1945