A multitude of new organizational structures have emerged on the scene in the past few decades but they still lack a number of the desirable qualities in the standard procedures. In the end, project management supervisors seek organizational procedures that facilitate teamwork, can maximize the utilization of limited resources, quality and efficiency in how a job is finished and how goals and objectives are attained. This guide will analyze the three main traditional organizational arrangements for project management. These three structures are practical organization, project organization and matrix organization.
Functional Organization
This arrangement is by far the earliest of the organizational approaches but remains among the most successful. This technique performs best when used for routine work purposes and the upholding of work and quality standards. Functional Organization structures assign jobs in two unique ways. One way requires the job being assigned to a particular operational manager who then coordinates with the other sections for them to contribute.
Otherwise, jobs can be shuffled around to different departments where every department manager guarantees that their portions of the job have been completed. This method does not work very efficiently when used in facilitating complex projects. One of the main criticisms of the organizational structure is the absence of built-in employee recognition, reward and measurement for job performance. Similarly, there’s hardly any individual accountability for any job management tasks that will need to be performed.
Project Organization
Project Organization is a construction which is specifically intended for executing projects. It is specifically tailored to fulfill the requirements of complex projects by devoting special work and keeping a strong focus on finishing the project by communicating with influence. When the project is finished, this arrangement disbands. This arrangement is effective in keeping dedicated resources throughout the life span of the project.
The major criticism of the structure is that it is inefficient in transferring technology and using resources. Additionally, by the time the members really start acting as a cohesive group, the job is finished and the company dissolves. Because this project has committed resources throughout its lifetime, important inefficiency ensues when there are underutilized workers during certain areas of the project.
Matrix Organization
Matrix Organization is a job management Structure that evolved from the recognition of inherent defects in the Functional Organization and Project Organization structures. Produced in the 1970s, this arrangement combined the best components of both of these structures. This model works very well when there are numerous projects being coordinated simultaneously. The operational managers oversee the staffing, training, job assignment and analysis of the project’s personnel. The operational experts are assigned one or more jobs and oversee these individualized projects’ reach their objectives are completed via maximum resource efficiency.