What are organizational silos?

Answer 1

Organizational silos are where grains and corn are grown. The first answer pertains to grain silos, as would be found in farming communities. This is not what is meant by the term "organizational silo". Organizational silos, as the term is used in business and information technology, are dysfunctional units or departments within an enterprise, characterized by their tendency to protect themselves, hold and maintain duplicates of data and services that are available centrally, communicate more within than outside, and to place their own parochial goals ahead of the larger goals of the enterprise itself. Organizational silos are sometimes the result of unchecked "empire building" by middle management. Because of their tendency to duplicate data and services that are already available within corporations, organizational silos waste money and make implementation of corporate-wide information systems difficult or impossible.