Introduction: Internal and External “Integration”

Abstract

This book is an exploration of a wide range of issues bearing on what I refer to as “Integration”. In particular I focus upon the need for closer managerial and organisational integration within many enterprises, large and small. Integration is an easy word to use but it is a slippery concept; formal definitions do not help much, though at a later stage I provide a list of definitions appropriate to different forms of “integration”. What then is integration and is it important?