Stovepipes Vs. Silos
Organizational structures where stovepipes and silos are isolated or semi-isolated teams where communications take place up and down the hierarchy, as opposed to directly with other teams across the organization.
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Origin
In 1988, Phil Ensor, a manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, coined the phrase "functional silo syndrome" to describe departments that hoarded information and refused to collaborate. Raised in rural Illinois, Ensor drew on the grain silos he knew from childhood. Two years later, Peter Senge popularized the related metaphor "stovepipes" in The Fifth Discipline (1990), cementing both images in management vocabulary. The information silo concept is now foundational in organizational theory.
Updated February 22, 2026