HUMA 1745 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Jack Welch, Automattic
1 May 2018
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HUMA 1745 Lecture 24 Notes – The Boundaryless Organization
Introduction
• Geeral Eletri’s forer haira, Jak Welh, oied the ter oudaryless
orgaizatio to desrie his idea of hat he ated GE to eoe: a faily groery
store.
• That is, i spite of GE’s ostrous size reeues ere oer $5 illio, Welh
wanted to eliminate vertical and horizontal boundaries within it and break down
external barriers between the company and its customers and suppliers.
• The boundaryless organization seeks to eliminate the chain of command, have limitless
spans of control, and replace departments with empowered teams.
• Although GE has not yet achieved this boundaryless state—and probably never will—it
has made significant progress toward that end.
• So have other companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Motorola, and 3M.
• OB in the Workplace explores some of the issues involved in creating a global virtual
workplace.
• Neither Automattic Inc., with 123 employees working in 26 countries nor Kalypso LP,
with 150 employees around the globe has a corporate headquarters or, truly, an office
of any sort.
• The implications of this new understanding of what it means to be a global virtual
business are logistical, structural, and human.
• On the logistics end of getting work done, office-less companies utilize every technology
available, from Skype to blogs.
• Sensitive information is limited to phone discussions, though the difficulty of scheduling
virtual meetings can be tricky across a number of time zones.
• When needed and at least annually, employees fly to designated intermediate spots for
face-to-face time.
• Employees live where they want or where a strategic company presence for clients is
desired. The office-less company is not a good fit for every industry.
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