Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart

2.2. The Systems (Horizontal) View of an Organization

A different perspective is represented by the horizontal, or systems, view of an organization, illustrated in Figure 2.3. This high-level picture of a business:

• Includes the three ingredients missing from the organization chart depicted in Figure 2.1: the customer, the product, and the flow of work

Figure 2.3. Systems (Horizontal) View of an Organization.

• Enables us to see how work actually gets done, which is through processes that cut across functional boundaries

• Shows the internal customer-supplier relationships through which products and services are produced

In our experience, the greatest ...