Week 3 Assignment 1: Application Assignment - Sheila de Vera

This week I interviewed “Bobby” who works at a multinational company that designs and sells consumer electronics, software and personal computers. Listed as one of Forbes most admired companies, Company X enjoys a being the leader in its space. As a courtesy, I used an alias for Bobby and kept the name of the company private.

Bobby has been a software engineer at Company X for close to six years.  He enjoys what he does and his work is used by millions handheld devices and tablet users each day.

At first glance at the company organization chart, Company X looks like a typical vertical structure with the CEO at the very top and senior vice presidents of the nine major business units reporting directly to the CEO.  (Daft, 91)  In Bobby’s group, he is part of a five-person team who reports to a manager who in turn reports to the senior vice president of software.  However, upon closer look, Company X fits the structure of a matrix organization.

In Daft’s the Fundamentals of Organizational Structure: Organization Theory and Design article, a matrix structure is described as “when technical expertise and product innovation and change are important for meeting organization goals.” (Daft, 108)  Bobby echoed this when he said, “At Company X, our product innovation and technological advances set us apart from our competitors.”

A matrix structure can be a combination of product division and functional structure, which is how Bobby describes the structure at Company X.

“A Company X, we are sorted by our function,” said Bobby.  “Software engineering crosses between the company’s product categories: personal electronics, personal computing, and hardware.  Engineering is tapped to work on software projects that apply to all of Company X’s product offerings.”  This fits with the definition of a functional structure where “activities are grouped together by common function.” (Daft, 102)

This causes employees to report to their own manager and to the lead of the project team they have been assigned to.  This is a disadvantage of the matrix organization since “employees experience dual authority reporting to two bosses” and juggle “conflicting demands.” (Daft, 111)

“The engineering teams are small and more focused,” said Bobby.  “We work on smaller projects and since we work in small teams, we are able to prioritize tasks on order of priority.”  What Bobby described was a divisional structure that “promotes flexibility and change” and “can adapt to the needs of its environment.” (Daft, 105) In addition, this “structure typically works best in organizations that have multiple products.” (Daft, 106)

One of the most important roles at Company X is to keep projects moving along and project managers are a vital part of operation.  “Our project managers orchestrate the project priorities, find resources, set the timetable and budget for these projects.”  The project manager “is responsible for the entire project” and they are used solely for the purpose of coordination.” (Daft, 97) This also fits in to the product matrix description where project managers “have primary authority and functional managers assign technical personnel to projects and provide advisory expertise as needed.” (Daft,110)

A flaw that Bobby sees is that the project managers do not provide the engineering group visibility to what the other departments are working on.  “The project managers want our team to focus on the specific part of the project and don’t want us to get inundated with details that don’t affect us,” said Bobby.  “This can be frustrating since it would be easier to just tell us what the overall project is so we know how everything fits in the grand scheme of things.”

This was one of the only flaws that Bobby mentioned during the interview.  Overall he felt that Company X has created an effective system where processes and systems contribute to the company’s success.

“I think our organization structure works because the company continues to deliver successful products that people believe in,” said Bobby.  “Company X has implemented a system of processes that make it possible for employees to be innovative and new technologies to be developed.”

Company X’s matrix structure is working to help the company stay competitive and keep rolling out innovative products. It will be interesting to see how Company X will be able to maintain its competitive edge and introduce new solutions that will continue to revolutionize how we communicate.

References
“Bobby” (2012, September 30), interview.

Daft, R. (2007). Fundamentals of Organizational Structure: Organization Theory and Design. (9), 88-125.