Growth Realization through Lateral Integrative Mechanisms
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Companies struggle with integrating functions and managing growth. This becomes especially clear during acquisitions and integrations. Company structures are always changing, but they are not always integrating or innovating. A single department with three populations from merged companies may still function the way they used to before the acquisition. Lateral Integrative Mechanisms(LIMs) are presentedin this article as the bridges between functions and factions in a multi-national corporation. The tactical advantages of these technical mechanisms are labelled and described in terms of their functionality. A theory is developed as described by propositions which emerged in the case that describe the need and the attributes of LIMs for success in a global enterprise. These structural interfaces act as mechanisms that have significant potential to help a decentralized organizational structure grow and enact strategy in a competitive technical landscape.
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