Postmodern organizations face many challenges – but a major challenge is to put up with frequent and fast-paced changes. Fortunately (or unfortunately), changes are unavoidable. However, changes make boundaries more unclear, and with unclear boundaries, disagreements can get worse, building up to conflicts. With the latter, it can be difficult to foster a language of synergy.

Neutral forms of interactions don’t do an organization any good, and may change to destructive forms. In some cases, like one-way communication in a hierarchical organizational structure or nature of work processes, there’s nothing one can do. However, if it becomes necessary for parties to connect, and they fail to do so, either deliberately or involuntarily, a sense of “disconnectedness” or invasion can develop among parties involved to a different degree. Read on to learn more.

At any given instance in any organization, seven forms of interactions exist. If at all they coexist, it’s a different matter altogether but all types of boundaries coexist. Apparently, in the eye of managers and employees, the degree to which boundaries are clear is subjective, leading to confusion. Boundaries and communication affect the quality of an interaction between diverse parties; hence, synergy. Let’s dig deeper to find out more.

Boundaries, while necessary for self-protection, mustn’t be rigid. This is especially so if we want to cultivate synergy. Learning to recalibrate (soften) boundaries can help in acknowledging diversity; hence, fostering synergy.

The creation of synergy depends on diversity and quality of interactions between different elements. Boundaries and communication influence quality of interactions. In addition, uniformity and uniqueness affect synergy.

Synergy’s important to organizational development, advancement and success. It requires a flexible boundary to thrive – not a rigid or blurred boundary. Let’s learn about how boundaries affect synergy.

Postmodern organizations are increasingly less specialized, professional, quality driven, teamwork oriented, synergistic and cooperative. A lot has changed in organizational structures during the past 100 years – and continues to do so. Let’s learn about the historical context of synergy.

Increasingly, organizational synergy’s a necessity for 21st century organizations. Problems such as cultural diversity are inescapable -- they should be embraced -- not resisted, as resistance tends to produce counterproductive outcomes. Let’s learn about the origin of the concept.

This article draws from the perspectives of Aristotle and Dr. Rami Ben-Yshai about synergy. It’s a concept that informs organizational synergy, which fosters collectivistic mind-set, as opposed to the “us versus them” mentality. Let’s find out.