Even the most isolated groups remain separate fiefdoms with widely varying experiences, beliefs and histories.

For example, frozen foods and grocery shelf foods, once separate fiefdoms, now report to the same manager.

After the fallout of Gonder, Ethiopia existed only as a cluster of separate and feuding fiefdoms.

"Drawing the separate fiefdoms of marketing, accounting and finance into integrative teams is also an exercise in bringing people of difference together," Mr. Gerrity said.

Each retail merchandise department, particularly in multi-store organizations, became a separate fiefdom, with the buyer in charge of product selection, scale, timing of orders, and pricing.

The separate fiefdoms that made up Pepsico for years have not exactly disappeared from the scene, and the risk remains that they will resist pulling together toward the same objectives.

Instead, Lebanon has two governments - one Moslem and backed by Syria, the other Christian and sympathetic to Israel - in separate, geographic fiefdoms.

"I looked around when I got here and it was like 13th-century Japan, with all these warlords in separate fiefdoms fighting each other," Fitzpatrick said with characteristic candor.

The strange, granular structure of the Church of England means that our dioceses and cathedrals are run as separate and sometimes insular fiefdoms.

In 1653, Bennebroek split off from Heemstede, becoming a separate fiefdom.