Matrix Organizations LO14468

Marks, Ken (marksk@ms2.aes.com)
Wed, 23 Jul 1997 10:56:40 -0700

Replying to LO14437 --

Bob, you asked for information on matrix organizations: what they are and
what sources of information are available.

The aerospace industry has used matrix organizational concepts for years.

The essential characteristics of this approach is that an employee is
responsible to two managers or two elements of the organization. The
employee is assigned to a functional group that is responsible for the
accomplishment of that function on whatever project it might be needed.

The thermal engineering group, as an example, would be responsible for
seeing to it that appropriate thermal engineering analysis gets done for
each project taken on by the company. The group is responsible for
maintaining a pool of thermal engineering skills that is adequate to
support the company's goals. When an individual thermal engineer is
assigned to support a particular project, he or she takes on a share of
the responsibility for the success of that project. The engineer is
responsible to the project manager for the thermal engineering portion of
the project's work.

In this scheme of management, senior management looks to functional
managers for the maintenance and application of the company's skills and
to project managers for the successful delivery of products.

There are a number of management texts that describe matrix management in
some detail. Two that I am familiar with were published by Von Nostrand
Reinhold. Section I of "Project Management Handbook" by Cleland and King,
published in 1983, compares and contrasts project management and matrix
management. Harold Kerzner's "Project Management: A Systems Approach to
Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling" devotes a chapter on matrix
organizations in its 4th edition, published in 1992. I'm sure there are
more recent books available, but perhaps these might be of some help.

Ken Marks
GenCorp Aerojet
marksk@ms2.aes.com

-- 

marksk@ms2.aes.com (Marks, Ken)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>