MBA Boot Camp: Organizational Structures (7.1)
Concepts & Vocabulary
Hierarchical Structure: The classic corporate pyramid. Clear chains of command, but often slow to adapt.
Flat Structure: Few or no levels of middle management between staff and executives. Fast decision-making, but can become chaotic as the company grows.
Matrix Organization: A complex structure where employees have dual reporting relationships (e.g. reporting to a functional manager AND a product manager).
Core Lesson: The Architecture of Power
How a company is structured determines how fast it can move and how innovative it can be.
In a modern corporate environment, you will likely work in a Matrix Structure. Imagine you are a Marketing Manager for a new software product in Europe. In a matrix, you might report to the VP of Marketing (your functional boss who ensures your marketing is on-brand) AND the General Manager of Europe (your regional boss who ensures you are hitting European sales targets).
The MBA Insight: The Matrix structure is notoriously difficult because it violates the old military rule of "unity of command" (one person, one boss). It creates built-in tension. But companies use it because it forces cross-functional collaboration. Your success in a matrix depends entirely on your ability to influence people who don't directly report to you.
Application & Reflection
The public library has a matrix structure too, where—as a Director—you report to different people. At the same time, running a small library is also a flat structure. So it creates a somewhat strange situation, where you can feel like you report to no one on most days, while actually reporting to many different factions over the course of a quarter or year.
For example, I certainly reported to the Library Board every month. I also reported to the city council regarding our annual budget approvals, and I reported to the city officals, since the library is a city department. That meant making sure all library employees were complying with necessary city training requirements, and reporting our timesheets to the city treasurer, so that everyone got paid. You also report statistics to the state via your library system. You report to the library system in other ways too, since they manage delivery (suppliers), manage your IT, and oversee other professional requirements (e.g. continuing education requirements to maintain your certification).
We could be much more innovative locally, which is where I spent most of my energy: the library, the employees, and the community. The weakness of this structure is that you have to learn how much energy to give to those other structures. You could really pour yourself into a training or a review of the extended matrix, but that would often come at the expense of where you could make the most impact, be the most creative, and create the most change—the library you’re running.
