It is also characterized as an empowered and learning organization. Boundaries between traditional departments are obliterated. The vertical hierarchy is flattened, with perhaps only a few senior executives in traditional support functions, such as finance and human resources. Management tasks are delegated to the lowest level. Most employees work in multidisciplinary, self-managed teams organized around a process, such as new product development.
Customers drive the horizontal corporation.
For the horizontal design to work, processes must be based on meeting customers needs. Employees are brought into direct, regular contact with customers as well as suppliers. Sometimes representatives of these outside organizations serve as full-fledged team members. Realignment of organization design is accompanied by concurrent efforts striving at developing the corporate culture conducive to achieving its missions and goals, improving organizational effectiveness and competent management of change. Teams can be extremely useful in allowing an organization to reach the full potential of the valuable resources held within each employees person.