ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Interorganizational system

An interorganizational system is like a big puzzle with different pieces (organizations) that need to work together to create the full picture. Just like how you need all the pieces of a puzzle to make it complete, organizations need to work together to make something happen.

Let's say you wanted to make a birthday cake all by yourself. You would need to gather all the ingredients like eggs, flour, and sugar from different places like the store, your neighbor, and your pantry. Now, if you have more people helping you, it becomes easier to gather all the ingredients and put them together to make the birthday cake.

Similarly, in an interorganizational system, different organizations work together to achieve a common goal, just like how various people work together to make a cake. These organizations can be businesses, non-profits, or government agencies that share information and resources to accomplish a task or create a product.

For example, let's say you want to buy a new phone. You go to the store and the salesperson helps you choose the phone, but how did that phone get to the store in the first place? There was a complex interorganizational system that brought the phone from the manufacturer to the store. The manufacturer had to work with suppliers to get the materials to make the phone, and then they had to work with shipping companies to transport it to the store.

Overall, an interorganizational system is a way for different organizations to work together like puzzle pieces to achieve a common goal, just like how different people work together to make a birthday cake.