Matrix management is an
organizational structure
An organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims.
Organizational structure affects organizational action and provides the foundat ...
in which some individuals report to more than one supervisor or leader–relationships described as
solid line or dotted line reporting. More broadly, it may also describe the
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
of cross-functional, cross-business groups and other work models that do not maintain strict vertical business units or
silos grouped by function and geography.
Matrix management, developed in U.S. aerospace in the 1950s, achieved wider adoption in the 1970s.
Overview
There are different types of matrix management, including ''strong'', ''weak'', and ''balanced'', and there are hybrids between functional grouping and divisional or product structuring.
For example, by having staff in an engineering group who have marketing skills and who report to
both the engineering and the marketing hierarchy, an engineering-oriented company
produced "many ground-breaking computer systems."
[ This is an example of ''cross-functional'' matrix management, and is not the same as when, in the 1980s, a department acquired PCs and hired programmers.
Often senior employees, these employees are part of a product-oriented project manager's team but also report to another boss in a functional department. A senior employee who may have worked previously for an advertising agency, designing ads for computers, may now be part of a marketing department at a computer company, but be working with an engineering group. This is often called cross-functional matrix management.
Companies that have multiple business units and international operations, upon closer inspection may apply matrix structures in different ways.
Even ]function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a system
* Function object or functor or functionoid, a concept of object-oriente ...
-based organizations may apply this arrangement for limited projects.
In practice
Examples of using matrix management:
* Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...
founder Ken Olsen spawned and popularized Matrix Management.
* ABB Group
ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...
, formed from a 1988 merger and followed by "an ambitious acquisition program." Guiding this was a corporate structure whereby "local operations were organized within the framework of a two-dimensional matrix."
As for why the term is not publicly and formally affiliated with large numbers of corporations, a 2007 book about how "matrix management made a big splash in the 1970s" said that, "for the most part... companies using matrix structures tend to keep quiet about it."[
]
Scaling back
Two decades after pioneering in matrix management, Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...
backed out, citing it as a source of "sapped energy and efficiency from product-development efforts."
Regarding earlier years, when it worked, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' praised "consensus building that may have once helped Digital become the nation's second-largest computer maker" (after IBM). The same article noted the cutting of 20,000 jobs, and that what worked with the PC market didn't work as well with larger systems, such as DEC Alpha
Alpha (original name Alpha AXP) is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Alpha was designed to replace 32-bit VAX complex instruction set compute ...
.
This does not take away from what, a week earlier, the same author wrote: "It fostered internal competition and resulted in many ground-breaking computer systems like the PDP and VAX lines."
Matrix Management 2.0
In 2004, despite matrix management having become disfavored,[ ]Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
made an attempt at using a form of it, later described as "matrix management 2.0". The focus is intended to be "leading without authority" so that "no one functional leader is in charge."
Academic overview
* Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal writing on matrix management in the Harvard Business Review
''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Ma ...
, quoted a line manager saying “The challenge is not so much to build a matrix structure as it is to create a matrix in the minds of our managers”.
* “Designing Matrix Organizations That Actually Work” Jay R. Galbraith says “Organization structures do not fail, but management fails at implementing them successfully.” He argues that strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people all need to be aligned in a successful matrix implementation.
* “Making the Matrix Work: How Matrix Managers Engage People and Cut through Complexity”, Kevan Hall
Kevan Hall is an American fashion designer best known for his couture red carpet designs and his role as the design and creative director of Halston.
Personal life
Kevan was born in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest of three children; his brother ...
“Making the Matrix Work: How Matrix Managers Engage People and Cut Through Complexity”
by Kevan Hall , , identifies a number of specific matrix management challenges in an environment where accountability without control, and influence without authority, become the norm:
** Context – ensure that people understand the reasoning behind the matrix
** Cooperation
Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...
– improve cooperation across the silos, but avoid bureaucracy and having too many people involved
** Control – avoid centralization, build trust, empower people
** Community – focus on the "soft structure" of networks, communities, team
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...
s and groups
See also
* Organization development
Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change, the goal of which is to modify an organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational changes are ...
* Colocation Project management
Colocation (or co-location) is the act of placing multiple (sometimes related) entities within a single location.
Examples
* In an organization, it refers to placing related roles or groups in a single room, building or campus.
* In business, ...
References
External links
Understanding Matrix Management
John Wiley, CBS ''MoneyWatch''
*
Matrix Management Reinvented – The New Game in Town
', Paula K. Martin, 2015, International Matrix Management Institute, {{ISBN, 0988334216
*
, Tara Duggan, ''Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
''
Management by type
Organizational theory
Types of organization