Team-based, Network-based or Boundary-less

Team-based organizations give the members an opportunity to have more input and ownership on decisions. Team-based organizations can bring together a diverse group to give a more in depth and varied response. This may lead to decisions and plans that are not typically used because of the diversity of those contributing to the group. The team-based structure has positive and negative aspects in the collaborative nature of the structure. The opportunity for team collaboration adds to the diversity of the decisions but can also hinder or slow down the process. Team-based organizations may end up needing more time for decisions because of the need for input from all team members for a decision to be made.

Network-based organizations are dynamic in structure if the right group of network partners can be found. The network-based structure brings together a group of individual organizations that are each specialized and focused on their core business. Each of these core businesses are brought together to achieve the common goal of delivering the goods or services desired. This structure is advantageous because of the ability of each separate organization to develop and perfect their core business to the benefit of the networks overall goal. This structure can pose some challenges though because of the need for a common structure for communication and collaboration. There needs to be a system in place for effective communication and accountability to keep the individual organizations on task for the common goal.

Boundary-less organizations may be the most challenging to develop because of the lack of structure. The information and cooperation in a boundary-less organization flows across traditional structure lines without hesitation. This structure gives flexible to the organization for responding to changes and learning in the development of the organization. The challenge for this structure is that because of the freedom involved it can be tough for those working in the organization to get used to and accept the structure if they are used to the more traditional chains of communication and responsibility.