Organizational Structures in Project Management

What is Organization in relation to Project Management?

It encompasses all areas of the project that are to do with the style of coordination, communication, and management that the project team uses throughout a project lifecycle. When a team engages with proper project organization, it will optimize resources, provide clear communication about roles and responsibilities, and finally, reduce potential roadblocks (Eby, 2021).

It is an important part of the project management life cycle as when managers use Project Organization, they can align their team members before and during a project. By engaging in this process, disruption to workflow is mitigated, along with conflict amongst team members, and productivity is maximized (Eby, 2021).

Organizational Structures

These are seen to be the official line of authority and control within an organization. They tell us how reporting relationships work in a given organization (Nutcache, 2021).

Organizations can be structured in 3 ways:

1. Functional Organizational Structure

2. Matrix Organizational Structure

3. Projectized Organization Structure

Functional Organizational Structure

This structure is used to organize workers based upon their specific skills and knowledge. It does this through a vertical structure with each department from president to finance and sales department. To customer service, to employees assigned to one product or service. Rach group within a functional organization will report to a single authority (Upcounsel, 2020).

Matrix Organizational Structure

This type of organizational structure is centred around employees report to two or more managers rather than one manager who would typically oversee every aspect of a project. For instance, there might be one primary manager that an employee will report to, but also one or more project managers too. This type of structure can be seen used in situations where skills need to be shared across departments in order to complete a task and allow companies to make use of a wide range of talents and strengths (Indeed, 2021).

Projectized Organization Structure

This structure is set up so as to allow the project manager to be on top of the hierarchy, giving them full power in any decision that is involved in the project. Team members will report directly to him/her. It differs from other systems, like the functional structure, in that project managers are not limited to task such as decision making and resource utilization (ManagementSquare, 2021).

References

Eby, K., 2021. Essential Guide to Project Organizational Structure. [Online] Available at: https://www.smartsheet.com/content/project-management-organization [Accessed 20 November 2021].

Indeed, 2021. Matrix Organizational Structure: Advantages and Disadvantages. [Online] Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/matrix-organizational-structure-advantages-disadvantages#:~:text=A%20matrix%20organizational%20structure%20is%20a%20workplace%20format%20in%20which,project%20managers%20they%20work%20under. [Accessed 20 November 2021].

ManagementSquare, 2021. What is Projectized Organization Structure: The Know-Hows. [Online] Available at: https://www.management-square.com/projectized-organization-structure/ [Accessed 20 November 2021].

Nutcache, 2021. Introduction to Project Management Organizational Structure. [Online] Available at: https://www.nutcache.com/blog/introduction-to-project-management-organizational-structure/ [Accessed 20 November 2021].

Upcounsel, 2020. Functional Organizational Structure: Everything You Need to Know. [Online] Available at: https://www.upcounsel.com/functional-organizational-structure [Accessed 20 November 2021].