CASCADE NOUN (BUSINESS WORLD)

In business jargon, the process of disseminating information within an organization from the top of the hierarchy downwards in stages, with each level in the hierarchy being briefed and in turn briefing the next level down; a meeting designed to achieve this. Etymology: A figurative use of the word cascade, in which the information is seen as falling and spreading like a waterfall. It has parallels in a technical sense of the word in transport: the process of relegating rolling stock etc. to successively less demanding uses before decommissioning it altogether. History and Usage: Cascade was a fashionable marketing and business term which found its way into other professions, such as education, during the eighties. The opposite effect, in which those at the bottom of the hierarchy feed back their views to the higher echelons, has jokingly been called 'splashback'. An elaborate training programme has been arranged, spread over four phases in what is called a 'cascade'. Heads of department are trained so that they can go back into schools and train the teachers. The Times 25 Apr. 1986, p. 10