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Collaboration Rules



An interesting article about the group effort to make free software or 
cars ... 

Highlight: 

Toyota is remarkably similar to Linux in the way it blends key 
characteristics of both markets and hierarchies. Like markets, the 
Toyota and Linux communities can be self-organizing, but unlike 
markets, they don’t use cash or contracts at critical junctures. Like 
hierarchies, Toyota and Linux enjoy low transaction costs, but unlike 
hierarchies, their members may belong to many different organizations 
(or to none at all) and are not corseted by specific, predefined roles 
and responsibilities. And like hierarchies, members share a common 
purpose, but that purpose emanates from self-motivation rather than 
from the external incentives or sanctions that hierarchies generally 
impose. In these respects, Toyota and Linux represent the best of both 
worlds. An analysis of their common characteristics suggests how 
high-performance organizations remain productive and inventive even 
under grueling conditions. We believe those lessons can significantly 
improve the way work in most organizations gets done. 

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0507/article/R0507H.jhtml

- Knut Yrvin



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