Working the boundaries in the motor industry

Smart, P K, Brookes, N J, Lettice, F E ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1304-4435, Backhouse, C J and Burns, N D (2000) Working the boundaries in the motor industry. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 214 (10). pp. 941-946. ISSN 0954-4054

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Improving product development performance, through changes in organizational structure, has been an important goal for many researchers, organizational development consultants and industrialists in the 1990s. The challenges of the twenty-first century business environment will require a radical re-think of old ideas about formal organizational structures and their impact on company achievements. Perhaps it is time to question whether the choice of any one organizational structure over another is really conducive to improvements in product development performance. The 'Working the Boundaries' Project will undertake an investigation into the feasibility of a boundary-based view to product development in the automotive industry. This paper sets the research context and presents some preliminary research findings in the form of a 'tentative theory' that suggests the importance of the informal organization based on the network of interrelationships between product developers.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Innovation, Technology and Operations Management
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 04 Dec 2013 12:18
Last Modified: 21 Mar 2023 09:32
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/45262
DOI: 10.1243/0954405001518008

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item