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Organizational silos that build on the existing organizational structures are often considered to have negative effects in the form of focus on private narrow objectives and organizational fragmentation. To avoid such harmful outcomes, competence management is called for, and in this, the human resources (HR) function takes a key role. Among other things, it can provide basis for emergence and utilization of communities of practice (CoPs) that build on common interests and effectively cross organizational boundaries. These features of CoPs allow them to carry competences and ease knowledge transfer and to break down the harmful isolation. Quite paradoxically, the challenge is that CoPs can also form within silos, thereby strengthening isolation, and HR as a utility department can itself be particularly prone to the silo effects. Examination of boundaries and silos through an original study conducted in a Finnish energy sector company suggests that HR managers need competences outside their own expertise area and courage to augment their CoPs across the functional boundaries to break out of the HR silo and to assist other functions to do the same.

The study is based on qualitative research data gathered in four focus group interviews with HR personnel from an energy sector company in November 2012. Totally, 19 professionals were interviewed (five HR partners, five talent development and performance managers, five vice presidents of HR and four HR managers) in the four focus groups. The company’s HR personnel represented units from Finland, Sweden, Poland and Estonia.

Examination of boundaries and silos in the Finnish energy sector suggests that HR managers need competences outside their own field (e.g. knowledge of the business and offerings of the firm) and courage to augment their CoPs across the functional boundaries to break out of the HR silo and to assist other functions to do the same.

Research provided that CoPs can have different effects on silos. As they are capable of crossing organizational and functional boundaries, they may effectively mitigate adverse silo effects; however, if CoPs are formed within silos, they may strengthen isolation and fragmentation. In addition, utility departments and supporting functions are particularly prone to the risk of CoPs forming within silos. The HR function is one manifestation of this. Paradoxically, it also has the potential to enhance the other type of effects that CoPs can exert, as competence management can be used to foster intentional and self-organizing CoPs that counter silo effects.

One of the issues concerning businesses today, which are reconfiguring the workplace towards more remote working, is avoiding the build-up of “silos” – teams, which operate as sealed off windowless units within the business. These interfere with the creation and maintenance of a one-team culture within your organisation.

With everyone working from home, this situation can potentially become even more difficult to address. Teams may meet regularly over digital channels but they likely have less contact with the people in the wider organisation, who they do not work with directly. If you were to map the points of contact in your organisation, you would see that remote working in many organisations is very much reducing them and confining them to within teams. So, in remote teams, there is more of a need than ever for HR professionals and business leaders to work to break down silos to keep the one team culture.

Here are some tips from the author’s experience for breaking down silos in remote teams: create opportunities for more relaxed social interactions, focus on the customer experience and share information across the organisation.

There may be opportunities for these underused skills to be deployed in another area of the business. But if the resource availability is not visible, that is less likely to happen. Equally, if each team does not share what it is doing in an up to date and accessible way, other teams will end up stepping on their toes. So, having a way of sharing accurate, real-time information across the business underpins the effort of working together in a unified and efficient way.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

It is one of the most common refrains within the walls of the modern organization – “we need to break down silos,” “we need to stop siloed thinking,” and “we need to change the silo mentality.” Anyone would think there is a war on silos and their seemingly catastrophic effects. However, the refrain is not a new one, and despite the war on silos, they seem to still exist and proliferate like weeds in a garden. Surely, we have got the idea by now that they are not a good thing and that we need to destroy them once and for all?

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate examples of the manner by which the academic library breaks down the silos on a college campus.

Literature review and commentary on this topic have been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners.

On a college campus, the value and impact of the academic library is today more than that of the standard model of libraries in which reference librarians offer available appropriate academic resources; but, the academic library is a place where the teaching and learning model of the standard model meets that of the support model to provide its users the best service by incorporating both aspects of the service.

The significance in exploring this topic is to provide evidence by which the academic library can and does offer a multitude of services that it can serve as the literal and physical center of a college campus.

The paper’s purpose is to investigate the concept of integrated thinking as part of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC’s) Integrated Reporting (<IR>) framework. It explores integrated thinking as a cultural control and analyses how it operates.

The paper presents a case study of ResBank (a pseudonym), a small Australian bank, which is participating in the IIRC’s <IR> Pilot Programme Business Network. ResBank issued its first integrated report in 2012. Using semi-structured interviews, we examine whether integrated thinking develops as espoused by the IIRC.

In ResBank’s case, we find that the responsible banking culture that was in place prior to joining the Pilot Programme is a stronger cultural control, alongside personnel, results and action controls. The implication for the IIRC is that integrated thinking clashes with the existing organisational culture rather than driving a new organisational culture.

If integrated thinking is to prevail, it may become a source of inertia rather than change because it advocates that an entire workforce should think the same way. We also question whether breaking down silos, as advocated by integrated thinking, is necessary across all organisational functions, especially concerning material organisational risks and reputation, because these silos foster independent thinking.

The problem with the arguments proposed by the IIRC is that they aim at a one-size-fits-all approach. Not every organisation has a disconnection between strategy, governance, past performance and future prospects nor do they all have disconnected departments that need reconnecting. Therefore, a fundamental problem with <IR> is that the IIRC argues ‘why’ companies need <IR>, not ‘how’ to implement <IR>, and especially not ‘how’ to operationalise integrated thinking.

The paper is a must-read because it contributes to the growing debate on the benefits of <IR> by examining and critiquing an early adopter’s practice.

In 2009, Malaysia saw a unique approach to public service improvement. The National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) was designed to enhance governmental performance by breaking down silos across ministries so that resources could be pooled and a leap in value of service is secured. This paper aims to examine the extent to which the NBOS has catalysed inter-agency collaboration and delivered improvements to public services.

The study adopts a qualitative approach drawing on data collected through semi-structured individual interviews with key informants complemented with information from other sources. The interview evidence has been triangulated with those obtained through group discussions, personal observations and review of official records and publications.

The paper shows that despite some teething problems, the NBOS has performed commendably. It has made notable inroads in promoting cross-agency collaboration, demonstrating evidence of improved service delivery and cost savings for the government. In short, it has produced results in areas where previous reforms have performed poorly.

The paper adds to the limited literature on collaborative management in developing countries. The Malaysian experience suggests that leadership and commitment at the highest level, an effective governance structure, participation of key actors at various stages and a blend of top-down and bottom-up approaches to project development and management are among the critical success factors for a collaborative approach.

Healthcare tribalism refers to the phenomenon through which different groups in a healthcare setting strictly adhere to their profession-based silo, within which they exhibit stereotypical behaviours. In turn, this can lead to deleterious downstream effects upon productivity and care delivered to patients. This study highlights a clinician-led governance model, implemented at a National Health Service (NHS) trust, to investigate whether it successfully overcame tribalism and helped drive innovation.

This was a convergent mixed-methods study including qualitative and quantitative data collected in parallel. Qualitative data included 27 semi-structured interviews with representatives from four professional groups. Quantitative data were collected through a verbally administered survey and scored on a 10-point scale.

The trust arranged its services under five autonomous business units, with a clinician and a manager sharing the leadership role at each unit. According to interviewees replies, this equivalent authority was cascaded down and enabled breaking down professional siloes, which in turn aided in the adoption of an innovative clinical model restructure.

This study contributes to the literature by characterizing a real-world example in which healthcare tribalism was mitigated while reflecting on the advantages yielded as a result.

Previous studies from all over the world identified major differences in the perspectives of different healthcare professional groups. In the United Kingdom, clinicians largely felt cut off from decision-making and dissatisfied with their managerial role. The study findings explain a governance model that allowed harmony and inclusion of different professions. Given the long-standing strains on healthcare systems worldwide, stakeholders can leverage the study findings for guidance in developing and implementing innovative managerial approaches.

The contemporary focus on extracurricular activities, here the educational incubator environment, accentuates a need to understand what we offer students in terms of the curricular and extracurricular learning environments when situated in the same higher education institution (HEI). Current research points towards breaking down the invisible barriers and silo thinking. In this conceptual study, we apply the Didaktik triangle as a theoretical and conceptual framing to make comparisons of structurally based conditions for curricular and extracurricular entrepreneurship education (EE). We present a framework that helps bridge the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ questions in the two different learning spaces and, thereby, conjoin educators and consultants in possible pedagogical discussions on how they work with the students. The suggested bridge frames a wider ‘why’ and adds a more holistic and cohesive view of the two different types of settings. Our study contributes to the literature on how to bridge the blurred lines between curricular and extracurricular activities and break down the silos. The framework can act as an inspiration for entrepreneurship educators and practitioners who wish to provide more suitable and sustainable structures and develop a holistic learning environment.

Pharmacia’s Corporate Services organisation (which consists of Global Real Estate, Facilities Management, and various other internal service functions) recently commenced an initiative aimed at driving operational excellence throughout all functional areas and geographic sites. Apart from greatly improving both financial and operational results, this initiative also led to the collapse of existing functional and geographic ‘silos’. By breaking down these ‘silos’ (which developed partially as a result of Pharmacia’s recent merger activity), Corporate Services has begun to achieve breakthrough results. These results are largely attributable to the application of a comprehensive, management‐sponsored undertaking, referred to as the Continuous Improvement (CI) Initiative. The CI Initiative has helped to minimise disparity, drive process optimisation and ensure enterprise‐wide alignment with organisational objectives. This paper outlines the various tools, processes and resources that Corporate Services’ management used in design and execution of the CI Initiative. Most notably, the paper describes the use of ‘scorecards’ to communicate and drive performance in a balanced context. Further, the paper provides numerous real‐life examples of how these scorecards are leveraged in the identification and prioritisation of process improvement opportunities.