Loading ...Right at the very top of organizations the matrix structure may have relatively little impact – after all everyone still works for you! This can lead to senior mangers underestimating the degree of difficulty their colleagues face in matrix management and in making the matrix organization structure work in practice.
The role of senior matrix leaders is, however, critical. They need to sponsor the matrix structure, remove barreirs and at the same time make sure we only implement the structure in areas where it adds value.
- Demystifying the matrix and communicating why it exists are critical
- They need to remove political and legacy cultural barriers to the success of the matrix structure (including senior managers who cannot adapt to the new style of matrix management)
- They need to manage escalation to ensure capability is built at the right level in the matrix.
- They need to decide where to build the new matrixed networks and communities that make the matrix structure work
- And above all they need to provide clarity on direction – not the day to day detail but the direction that allows competing priorities further down the matrix organization to be resolved in the interest of the organization as a whole.
Deeper into the leadership of the organization are the leaders who operate where the matrix reporting lines intersect, we call them the matrixed middle - more on matrix leadership and matrix management at this level in a future post.
Do your senior matrix leaders do a good job of providing this leadership?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Marigo Raftopoulos // Jul 1, 2008 at 3:29 pm
If only it was that simple. Political and legacy cultural barriers are major obstacles to an effective matrix strucutre, and they are deeply imbedded in organisations. These have been the major obstacles that I have faced in implementing matrix strucutres wth my clients.
Earlier this year I attened a course run by Peter Senge and he gave several examples from his exerience of implementing strategy teams in what he refers to as ‘learning organisations’ . Even when an organisation can see tangible benefits from a matrix-type structure, management has a tendency at some point of reverting to their traditional ‘default positions’ that are immbedded in legacy systems. Several other attendees at this course reported similar experiences and a sense of futility in even trying any more.
Our current management thinking and training is still imbedded in the post-industrial era and our current management employment and incentive schemes only serve to continually reproduce these legacy systems.
We have much work ahead of us in making matrix strucutres the default position of today’s organisations.
2 Kevan Hall // Jul 1, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I agree, I never said it was easy - I think overcoming legacy behaviours - particularly from the senior managers who succeeded under the “old” power structure is a huge problem.
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