Developing managers for mosaic coordination in fragmented organizations

Purpose This viewpoint aims to explain how learning and development teams can prepare managers to coordinate action in fragmented, cross-boundary and infrastructure-dependent organizations. Design/methodology/approach It translates recent research on ecosystem strategy, digital boundary spanning, dynamic-capability microfoundations, boundary work and holding environments into a practical development framework. Findings Managers need compositional intelligence: the ability to connect heterogeneous actors, units, technologies and time horizons without forcing full integration. Mosaic coordination is developed through interface diagnosis, translation across domains, selective coupling, polycentric prioritization, selective coherence and ethical sustainment. Research limitations/implications As a conceptual and practice-oriented article, the study does not test the framework empirically. Future research could examine how decentralized mosaic coordination is developed in different sectors, organizational sizes and national contexts. Case studies, action research and program evaluations could assess whether development interventions based on field mapping, interface diagnosis and compositional simulations improve cross-boundary coordination, organizational learning and post-program application. Practical implications The framework offers concrete guidelines for building and facilitating mosaic structures through field mapping, interface charters, translation routines, coupling rules, polycentric governance reviews and post-programme action learning. Social implications This paper encourages development practices that help managers coordinate across unequal and fragmented environments without imposing one dominant logic on all actors. This is socially relevant because many organizational problems involve communities, suppliers, public agencies, platforms and local intermediaries with different resources and constraints. By valuing translation, selective coherence and practical sustainment, the framework supports more inclusive and context-sensitive forms of organizational action. Originality/value This paper reframes management development from individual alignment skills toward the capacity to make heterogeneity workable.