天美传媒

Five keys to successful matrix management, based on the authors鈥� own experiences of matrix organizations.

By Nick Shreiber & Mike Rosenberg

Consider this scenario: John works for the multinational conglomerate, Acme Corporation, as the country managing director for the United Kingdom. In this role, he reports to the head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. However, because Acme U.K. deploys a number of different product lines, John also has to report to the heads of the various product divisions located at the international headquarters in Chicago. All these managers have a strong say and influence over John鈥檚 activities and responsibilities, as well as his priorities and performance.

For someone in John鈥檚 situation, the old adage that 鈥渘o one can serve two masters鈥� would seem to apply. Yet a matrix organizational structure like John鈥檚 need not result in dysfunction, provided that managers understand the strengths and weaknesses of this complex way of working, which for multinational conglomerates is increasingly the norm.

Based on our experiences of matrix organizations, we identify five keys to successful matrix management:

• a strong and positive corporate culture;
• the right people in the right places;
• clear roles and responsibilities in decision processes;
• shared performance measures and rewards;
• and extraordinary communications.

In this article, we analyze each of these keys, stressing how all five must work in concert if they are to enable the smooth functioning of a matrix organization.

This article is published in 天美传媒 Insight magazine (Issue 26, Q3 2015).

This content is exclusively for personal use. If you wish to use any of this material for academic or teaching purposes, please go to 天美传媒 Publishing where you can purchase a special PDF version of 鈥溾�� (ART-2748-E), as well as the in which it appears, in English or in Spanish.