Question 4 (b) part 2
Matrix organisation
3 marks
- Time to write
- About 6 minutes
From an older CBCS paper
Question
Question 4 (b) part 2 · 3 marksWrite short notes on: (2) Matrix Organisation.
Reworded from the university paper; the task is the same. The original paper belongs to the University of Delhi. See DU's question bank.
Before you write
Read off the question and its marks
Read from the question
- short notesA note opens with the meaning, then two or three key points. No long introduction.
Write it in this order
- 1 Meaning, with example 1 mark 2 min
- 2 Merits 1 mark 2 min
- 3 Limitations 1 mark 2 min
Easy marks
- Step 1 opens with the meaning: a one-line definition, the quickest mark in it.
Try it first. About 6 minutes for 3 marks. Write it out, then open the solution.
Solution
Hover or tap a marked figure, like 72,000, to see how it is made and where else it appears.
A pharmaceutical firm in Ahmedabad developing a new vaccine may put chemists, engineers and finance staff from their departments into one project team without taking them out of those departments. That is the idea of a matrix organisation: project teams are laid over the permanent functional structure. The project manager in such a firm does not command the team's resources outright, as he would in a pure project organisation, but shares them with the functional managers. Each member also answers to two heads, the functional head and the project head: the departments form the vertical lines of command, the projects the horizontal ones, and the grid appears where they cross.
1Drawn from every department, the project team huddles over one drawing.
Project organisationThe team answers to the project manager rather than to the functional heads.
2Ajay at his desk, a file arriving from each side: the project boss and the department boss.
Matrix organisationThey therefore have two bosses.
People widen their skills because they move from one project to another. Each project receives attention and resources of its own, so it can be planned and controlled separately and finished on time. The structure also stretches with the workload, since more projects only call for more teams.
Team members come from different departments and the project manager has no line authority over them, so clashes among them are hard to resolve. Having two heads leaves members unsure whose order to follow and breaks unity of command. Because messages must travel both across and up and down, paperwork grows and projects cost more.
Where the 3 marks sit
| # | Component | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meaning, with example | 1 |
| 2 | Merits | 1 |
| 3 | Limitations | 1 |
| Total | 3 |
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