BOUNDARYLESS
ORGANIZATION A boundaryless
organizational structureenables an rganization
to form relationships with customers, suppliers, and/or competitors, either to
pool organizational resources for mutual benefit or to encourage cooperation in
an uncertain environment. Such relationships often take the form of joint
ventures, which let the companies share
talented employees, intellectual property (such as a manufacturing process),
marketing distribution channels (such as
a direct sales force),
or financial resources. Boundaryless organizational
structures are most often used by companies that select the prospector business
strategy and operate in a volatile environment. 
Boundaryless
organizations share many of the characteristics of flat organizations. They break
down boundaries between the organization and its suppliers, customers, or
competitors. They also strongly emphasize teams, which are likely to include
employees representing different companies in the joint venture. For example, a
quality expert from an automobile manufacturing company may work closely with
employees at one of the company’s auto parts suppliers to train them in
specific quality management processes.
Companies often use a
boundaryless organizational structure when they (1) collaborate with customers
or suppliers to provide better-quality products or services, (2) are entering foreign
markets that have entry barriers to foreign competitors, or (3) need to manage
the risk of developing an expensive new technology. The boundaryless
organization is appropriate in these situations because it is open to change,
it facilitates the formation of joint ventures with foreign companies, and it
reduces the financial risk to any one organization. Here are some examples of
boundaryless organizational structures:
- Pixar, the animation studio, partnered with Walt Disney Pictures to produce a number of highly successful animated feature films, including Toy Story, Monsters,Inc. , Finding Nemo, and Cars.Finding Nemogenerated $865 million in global box office revenue and received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The partnership combined Pixar’s expertise in computer animation with Disney’s strength in marketing to reduce the risk of producing animated features.
- Airbus Industries is a boundaryless organizational design that consists of a partnership of European firms from four countries (France, Germany, England, and Spain) that worked together to market and develop commercial jet aircraft to compete with Boeing and become a leading producer of passenger jets.
- Apple Inc. partners with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics firm to manufacture Apple’s iPods, iMacs, and iPhones in China. Apple designs and markets the products, and its Asian partner builds and assembles them according to the design specifications and ships the finished products back to the United States.