Poor organizational structure can result in confusion, lack of coordination, failure to share ideas, and slow decision-making. These problems often go unnoticed by top management. A matrix organization is designed to distribute decision-making and force collaboration across divisions through dual lines of reporting. However, matrix structures can also lead to people having unclear roles and responsibilities, too much focus on internal stakeholders, difficulty making decisions, excessive bureaucracy, and cultural clashes if not implemented properly. Key aspects of effective matrix management include adopting the structure to solve real problems, aligning goals and incentives, keeping the structure as simple as possible, and ensuring shared mission and purpose.

1. What is the matrix
organization

3. Poor organizational design and structure results in a bewildering
morass of contradictions: confusion within roles, a lack of co-ordination
among functions, failure to share ideas, and slow decision-making bring
managers unnecessary complexity, stress, and conflict. Often those at
the top of an organization are oblivious to these problems or, worse,
pass them off as or challenges to overcome or opportunities to
develop.
Gil Corkindale, HBR

4. What is a matrix organisation?

5. Why are matrix organisations
designed/chosen?
• Distribute decision making
• Force collaboration across disciplines/divisions

6. Your stories

7. Force field analysis
Good things Bad things

8. Pitfalls of the Matrix
• People are not focused on clear
customer or mission centred
outcomes
• Too many responsibilities,
diffusion of focus
• Too much Stasis, internal
stakeholder focus
• Nobody can make a decision -
Fall into consensus decision
making
• Too much admin/bureaucracy/
layering - Over regulation
• Culture clashes
• Politics
• Tendency towards anarchy
• Follow the leader org design

9. Being an effective manager is a matrix
organisation
• Adopt a matrix to solve a real problem
• Middle manager from different teams must
collaborate on important business goals
• Co-ordination and collaboration cannot be achieved
through soft approaches alone
• Keep conflict out of the system
• Make sure there are intrinsic reasons for
collaboration
• Make sure goals, KPIs and rewards systems are
aligned
• Keep the matrix as simple as you can.
• The less dimensions in the matrix the better
• Keep line management simple, avoid dual line
reporting as much as you can
• Once you commit, commit
• Don’t use dotted lines, don’t make one line manager
more important than another in the hierarchy
• Make sure that all lines are equally important,
capable and represented
• Ensure shared goals, rewards etc, are clear across
the whole organisation
• Keep up the messaging about shared mission and
purpose
• Escalation should be the exception
• Senior managers need to delegate sufficiently
• Local decisions need to be supported
Herman Vantrappen, HBR

10. Agile techniques for Matrix Organisations

12. Reading
• Problems of Matrix Organizations
• Revisiting the matrix organization
• Making Matrix Organizations Actually Work
• Managing Effectively in a Matrix
• Structured Networks: Towards the Well-Designed Matrix
• Making Matrix Structures Work: Creating Clarity on Unit Roles and
Responsibility