Project structuring is essential to the success of any project. An entity or project team which is well-organized gives encouragement to the tasks which is already being completed. Disorganized project management teams or entities impact the outcome of a project negatively. This is all mainly because of the organizational structure which has an influence on the authority of the project leader, with affecting how projects are managed. It is without a doubt that non-structured project management teams often do not have a solid foundation or direction. After all, a well-guided team tends to perform much better.
Establishing the project structure is only a small segment of what it take to organize the project. We can say that it is the basic foundation but further application takes more resources and efforts. The project organization chart lays the formal relationships among project manager, the project team members, the development entity, the project, beneficiaries and additional project stakeholders. This organization should support an efficient communication and among all the major participants and facilitate open and concise conversation among them.
The project manager is the one forming a project structure that will has to meet different project criteria at every stage of the project. The structure cannot be made too intact or too vague. Since the project organization’s primary focus is to accelerate and simplify the interaction of people to reach the ultimate goals of the project within the described limitations, schedule, budget as well as standard. The goal here is to establish a project structure that acts as an environment that the project manager can make use of for encouraging team members to perform better and stick to completing their tasks and respective responsibilities. The structure has to be formed to seek alliance and cooperation among various team members. And all of it has to be done in an effortless manner with a minimum of conflict and delay.
Typically, the organization chart has a definitive way of functioning. It only illustrates the ranking relationship among the team members but does not state how the project organization should operate, comprising factors that will ease or challenge the operation of the structure. These might include communications, data flows, coordination and interoperability among team members.
Main Types of Organizational Structures
An organizational structure acts as the official authority that might impose control within an organization. Project management structures therefore, show us how shaping relationships work in certain entities.
Based on the initial environment the organization itself operating in, the goals they set for themselves and the scope of work being done, you would normally find that organizations are guided in the following 3 patterns:
- Operational Organizational Structure
- Matrix-based Structure – This can be further divided into – Balanced matrix, Strong Matrix, and Weak Matrix
- Projectized Organization Structure
Now that we have seen how organizational structures could be sub-divided, let’s take a closer look at each one of them to define what sets them apart from others.
Type 1: Operational Organizational Structure
In operational organizational structure, you would realize that setting a ranking system is the responsibility of the operational manager. The items of ranking system are the one where the authority-driven determinations on budget, schedule, and equipment are made. The operational manager therefore has to have an outstanding level of expertise in the given domain.
At the same time, it is said that the project manager, in this type of entity does not have much of an authority. In some of the operational organizations, that status does not even exist.
Nevertheless, what you would observe is the broken down work load into departments just like the human resource department, marketing department, finance, public relations, and others. In layman’s term, it can be compared to that of a more old organization. The organizations where staff is supervised over by a moderator, depending upon their responsibilities within the organization, which is now and again decided by department heads and the senior management.
The most notable thing about this type of operational structure is that employees typically have the most experience in their own departments. This enables them to show an improved efficiency in work. Everyone knows who to hold accountable if something were to go wrong.
On the other side, the work may prove tedious over time, which could result in reduced loyalty to the organization. In addition, you might also observe that cross-departmental communication is quite poor and show high level of bureaucracy. And that could have various negative repercussions.
Type 2: Projectized Organizational Structure
The projectized organizational structure is the very opposite of the operational organizational structure even if the organization may still class staff according to their work responsibilities.
In this instance, where the project management team structure is set in such a manner that the project manager has project authority, he/she might have a certain control over the project’s budget, schedule, and the project team. You most likely find him at the top of the organizational layout. And as the project ends, the project team members are let go and resources redistributed towards more important assignments.
The most interesting about this type of structure is that there is a clear, accepted line of authority. This, as a result, leads to faster decision-making and agreement processing. Communication also kept straight-forward and more productive. Project team members can get more experience working on different types of projects as the need for them occurs.
A major disadvantage to this type of structure, however, would be that staff could find themselves being under a lot of direct pressure. This could happen if the employees participate in various projects at the same time and could potentially result in poor communication among the team as everyone has some “catching-up” to do.
Type 3: Matrix-based Structure
The matrix organizational structure could be observed in both operational organizational structure and the projectized organizational structure depending on what type of matrix structure is being applied.
For instance, the strong matrix organizational structure has some similarities with that of a projectized organizational structure with the implication that the project manager has to be in charge of a project. When the organization is running on a loose matrix structure, then the project authority would be in the hands of an operational manager. However, in a stabilized matrix organization, both the project manager and the operational manager would share equal responsibilities in the project.
If any entity sees itself working in a rapid, powerful environment, then this might be the right structure to run with it. It supports efficiency, helps the organization keep up with customer demands or fluctuations in the marketplace, at an advanced rate.
This can be simply reached if the project manager exercises project authority in a horizontal manner, and the operational manager does so in a vertical, downwards structure.
Summary
In this post, we discussed what an organizational structure was and how essential it was for project managers to know various organizational types.
After looking at all the advantages and disadvantages of managing an operational, projectized and matrix structure we realized that the decision to go with either of them would solely depend on the kind of atmosphere in which the organization governs in, their objectives and priorities.
References
- Pros and Cons of 3 Project Organizational Structures – The balance careers
-
Introduction to Project Management Organizational Structure – Nutcache
