Corporate Matrix Structure
corporate matrix structure
Living within a Matrix Organization Structure
Recently I was at a particular corporate seminar. At one particular break when we were expected to network and socialize one of the attendees raised the
issues of the corporate matrix. He went on to relate, how one of the fundamental roadblocks for conducting business within his organisation was the fact that the organisational structure was designed to promote fiefdoms that were responsible for the success of their own particular area or segment group which in many cases collided with the company’s overall vision, mission and goals. After all, this was in line with the disadvantages sited in many management or organizational behaviour text books when discussing the matrix organizational structure. Even I have been guilty of teaching these to my students.
The Matrix
The matrix structure usually means you have more than one boss, as the reporting and hierarchy lines are often blurred by the siloed structure depending on the distinct focus. The specific examples he raised within his company was around the establishment of an acquisition group whose sole purpose was to acquire new customers for the entire company. This group reported into a separate sales division, but horizontally to the other product and customer coverage segments, thereby having more than one accountable leader, by organisational design and rendering that leader ineffective due to the multiple masters he or she had to serve.
At that particular discussion other participants in the conversation soon chimed in, citing the exact same phenomenon as occurring in their organisations and stating that it was a major impediment to conducting an effective and efficient sales and marketing function. Maybe, for that matter conducting or doing work in any function when the structure calls for a matrix can be disarming. Even on a very personal level I had to quit jobs because of the level of conflict I faced handling two bosses. Sometimes it’s like having to take sides when your spouse and mother do not agree!
My Take on the Matrix
This got me thinking. From the corporate research I have been conducting, the challenge for organisational matrix in large corporations gets raised time and time again. However even when this is the case most organizations embrace it with a vengeance.
I just want to say upfront that people who believe that it is unmanageable are in fact full of shit.
We should all know how to manage a matrix environment as we were born into one.
My Explanation
When most of us are born, we automatically have two managers namely other parents. We learn from a very early age, sometimes instinctively, what we can get from each parent. In some cases it is food, cuddles and quality time from one boss and it might be playful nurturing and early-morning attention from the other boss. But we know they are in charge, when tested or challenged, as they provide the support and sustenance required for survival.
As we grow and develop more experiences we find that they too have bosses, better known as grandparents. They also provide support and love but we seem to be able to obtain certain things from them that we wouldn’t be able from our own bosses. Maybe it is because they are the managers of our own bosses. Do you see parallels already?
Then there are other family players such as brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces. We learn through a mix of experiences and intuition what we can expect from each of them and sometimes what we can get away with. They are part of the support structure of our development and we learn to utilise them, or not, as a resource to achieve certain goals.
Further development arises at school age when we start to make friends.
We also experience our first association with matrix managers in teachers and spiritually through priests or gurus. Once again, through observation and interaction we get to know which ones will assist or just get in the way of our progress. I see further progress through into our late teens as we encounter lecturers and tutors.
Some even experience their first real business manager as they start a casual job, whether it is delivering newspapers, picking fruit in a farm or working at a local office as an office helper.
We also get to experience life as a customer from both sides of the fence.
Consistently we are thus learning and adapting to personality, leadership and management styles that may or may not suit our needs.
By the time one reaches the world of business one has already received the best real-life and real-time training to operate in a matrix environment. Over time you have been pretty apt to innately manage a wide range of stakeholders, including vertical and horizontal hierarchal structures in executive and senior management such as colleagues, peers and partners followed closely by potential prospects and customers.
So the message becomes very clear.
We go through our early development connections in a random yet structured manner to face life as we prepare ourselves for the survival techniques required to deal with society and business.
Matrix Organization and Team Energy
