Horizontal Integration

In the last byte, we looked at vertical integration linkage. In today's byte, we look at the horizontal integrator mechanisms.

As mentioned earlier, horizontal integration mechanism provides the communication and coordination that is required across the different jobs and departments in the organization. The need for such horizontal linkages increses as the complexity of the organization increases. When built into the organization, the forms these linkages could take forms like liason roles, task force, integrator positions and teams. 

Liason roles is created when a person in one department has the responsibility to coordinate with the other department. Task force are temporary committees composed of representatives from multiple deparments and focus on solving specific problem.
 

The strongest means of horizontal integration is through teams.
 

Note that these linkage mechanisms vary from organization to organization, as well asaa within the same organization. A simple observation is that the flatter the organization, the more necessary are horizontal mechanisms.
 

We next look at the various dimensions of org design.