Why would we want to use an unbalanced matrix organization?

During the transition from the functional organization to the matrix organization, it may be necessary to go through several interim organizations. This can be most easily done by first changing to a weak matrix organization where the functional managers retain most of their power and the project managers have very little power. As the project managers gain experience in managing work, they can be given more power. Eventually, as the project managers gain experience, they are given more power, and the functional managers are given less power until a balanced matrix organization is reached.

Some companies will go through this transition fairly quickly while others may go through it very slowly, and others will be satisfied to stop somewhere before a balanced matrix is achieved.

Tell me more …

One of the major problems in changing a functional organization into a matrix organization is getting there. Some executives discover matrix management and try to make the transition to it in their companies too quickly.

The problem is that when we have a functional organization, the functional managers not only take care of the administrative and training work of the people in the department they supervise, but they also make the work assignments and manage the results and performance of the people doing the work. When matrix management is used, project managers become responsible for the work assignments and for measuring the performance and progress of the work that is done by the project team.

The functional managers are the company's major assets. Most of them are senior people in the company and have much of the experience and knowledge of the company in their brains. It does not make any sense at all to lose these people for the sake of an organizational change. If we try to change to a matrix organization too quickly, this may happen. The reason is that the senior managers in the functional organization quickly realize that they will have less responsibility in the matrix organization because much of the organization's work will now be done in projects rather than in their home departments.

The transition from functional organization to matrix will take time. The existing functional managers must have time to fit into the organization in such a way that they are promoted instead of demoted. This does not happen overnight. They must not feel threatened by the organizational change or they will resist it. These managers are the major assets of the company and if they choose to resist the change, it will be a formidable resistance.

We can think of these organizations as varying from the functional type of organization to the pure project organization.

Closest to the functional organization is the weak matrix organization. In this style of organization, the project managers are not usually called project managers but something like project coordinators or expeditors, and they probably work only part of the time managing small parts of the project. Even at this low level of project management there are some advantages. There is now some focus on the customer, and there is a person who is concerned with the overall project. In this situation less than 25 percent of the personnel in the company will be assigned full-time to project work.

As we move toward more powerful project managers, we reach the balanced matrix organization that was described previously. Here the project manager manages projects full-time and has the title of project manager. In the balanced matrix organization, between 15 and 60 percent of the personnel in the company are assigned full-time to project work.

In a strong matrix organization, 50 to 90 percent of the company's personnel are assigned to project work full-time, and the project managers become more powerful than the functional managers. Program managers appear in this kind of organization and take on some of the responsibility of the functional managers as well.