International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

"The larger an organization grows, the longer is the way of communication, and this, depending on the particular nature of the organization, acts as a limiting factor and does not allow an organization to grow beyond a certain critical size" (L.von BERTALANFFY, 1956, p.7).

This law, stated by BERTALANFFY was enounced by K. BOULDING. It applies in depth as well as in extension. The geographical extension, for example, that an organization is effectively able to embrace and maintain depend on the nature and importance of its communication means and of its capacity to maintain the corresponding net in good functional state. It is also the case with any internal communication net, not anymore in a geographical sense, but from the viewpoint of its density. In the first case, disruption risks appear due to excessive stretching beyond some limit, or because of a growing noise in the channels. In the second case, there is a risk of overcrowding and overtightening, due to competition between too numerous elements which try to use simultaneously a net whose capacity is saturated or exceeded.