Military

[…] the tendency of groups to adjust toward that class of communication patterns that will permit the easiest and most satisfying flow of ideas, information, decisions, etc. In groups that are free of outside direction and control, it is clear that the interaction patterns that emerge and stabilize are a product of social processes within the group. A group that exists as part of a larger organization, however, may have relatively little freedom to make such an adjustment. In military organizations, for example, the maintenance of the stated, presumably optimum, patterns of communication is regarded as a first principle of effective performance. It is easy to understand this tendency to inhibit change in formal communication patterns if one considers how intimate the relation is among communication, Control, and authority.

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