Prior to 1970, generally sizable business organizations were arranged in silos, which are logical divisions of workers in which a group of people reported to a line or functional manager. The attempt to create a successful restructuring of the organization in order to develop workable project management teams is known as a matrix organization.
There are a wide variety of matrix organizations that possible. The goal for each of them being that they struggle to balance the power between each manager's functional needs. Primary types of matrix's can vary from: The Weak Matrix, Strong Matrix, and Balanced Matrix which all possess an organizational structure. This article in cover the in-depth benefits and drawbacks of the Strong Matrix organizational structure in particular.
A Balanced Matrix Structure
According to the old adage, absolute power results in absolute corruption. Because in every type of matrix structure a power struggle occurs, a method of balancing each group is necessary to avoid this problem. If this is not controlled, one group of managers will control the other group. This will be unhealthy for both the project and the overall organization, even if individual aspects of an organization or isolated projects may continue to succeed for a time. For example, a singularly controlling project manager might dominate a functional manager and force them to always relinquish the most valuable team members with which to complete the projects.
One way to deal with this problem is to create limits in the organization which determines when a manager can control a worker. These strategies should be based on a specific set of circumstances. For example, keeping a rule where a worker will be managed exclusively by the functional manager if a project will last for less than a week's time. In case, the project will take longer than a week, the control will pass on to the project manager. Otherwise, a rule can be made in such a way that a worker should not be employed by a project manager to work on two projects in a row.
A variety of possible rules and structures may be imposed to achieve the goal of balancing power between project and functional managers so that a win/lose condition is avoided. Obviously, the balanced matrix takes its name from the balance of power that results in this structural format.
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