Chapter 1.10. Breaking Down Boundaries: Breaking Through Resistance

Ron Ashkenas

Abstract: As the 21st Century dawns, the new drivers of competitive success are speed, flexibility, integration, and innovation. Gaining ground in any of these areas almost always requires making organizational boundaries more permeable. Boundaryless organizations are those which have loosened up the vertical boundaries between levels of the hierarchy, horizontal walls between functional areas, external barriers between members of the value chain, and geographic boundaries between home and abroad.

Boundaryless behavior is the art of the fluid. Consultants, external and internal, are challenged to help their clients break away from rigid thinking, old categories, and ...

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