This is a general organizational problem whereby different units or individuals have certain “turf” (programs, people, priorities) that they want to protect and that they may perceive as being threatened by other initiatives. A technical staff member recalled, “When I got here, I said, oh my god, why are you fighting over this? It’d be better to work together, but it just never was the culture to do that, and that’s changing a little bit now.” An IT manager from a medium agency explains, “Getting these people to come to any kind of mutual agreement is extremely difficult ... The different program areas perform extremely different functions with extremely different goals ... It had its fair share of political influences and so everyone is a chief and no one is really willing to compromise. “

Turf conflicts can threaten any innovation because they are not based on any reasonable ground that can be evaluated and argued. Stressing potential benefits may have no impact upon these turf loyalties. On the other hand, some negotiation may be necessary and useful to lessen the impact of the conflicts. At best, XML for Web site management can help to show commonalities throughout a work process and perhaps blur some of the hard and fast lines that lead to turf loyalty and conflicts. But these are still human relations and organizational issues that need to be addressed on their own to achieve the benefits from XML.