Company Strength Weakness Type of
Structure company
Line - Clear authority: - Slow down decision- Traditional and
Structure Provide well-defined making large
(The chain of roles and responsibilities - Lack of flexibility at fixed organizations
command) - Effective supervision structure when going through (government
- Discipline and multiple layers of levels. agencies,
Stability - Limited empowerment of military)
employees in decision- where a clear
making by excessive chain of
supervision command is
essential for
maintaining
order and
discipline.
Functional - Specialization & - Limited View: focus on Larger
Structure Efficiency: focus on their own department's organizations
specific functions => success with a stable
- Efficient utilization of - Potential conflicts between environment
people and money departments and a clear
resources focus on
- Clear departmental efficiency such
objectives & career as: A
path => efficient manufacturing
processes and company
streamlined workflows producing a
=> Empower single product
departments to focus on line.
their specific goals
=> Expertise
development
Flattening - Lower operating - A lack of supervision and Small
hierarchies costs: no need for mid- oversight means it’s harder to company;
and level managers track productivity Organizations
delegating - Improved - Employees can be overloaded that value
responsibility communication with work if work is not divided flexibility,
- Increased autonomy appropriately innovation,
and empowerment is - Coordination is difficult and employee
motivating to employees for large organizations empowerment.
- Decisions can be made - Horizontal promotions may such as: tech
faster and closer to the not sufficiently motivate startups and
point of impact people software
- Create power struggles: companies.
employees do not have an
overarching presence of a
superior
Matrix - Efficient utilization of - Unclear managerial and Organizations
Structure specialized resources team roles => Several that require a
across different projects departments can become quite balance
and departments between
complex => Slow decision-
- Fostering specialized
collaboration and making process + Too much expertise and
communication: allow work can cause overload project-based
cross-functional teams to => potential conflicts work:
work together effectively Companies
- Adapt quickly to new with multiple
projects and respond product lines
more rapidly to change such as
without the need to software
restructure teams development,
Engineering
and consulting
firms
Team - Fostering collaboration - Poor decision-making Companies
and communication - Dependency on strong with a high
- Increase commitment leadership volume of
projects, such
to the business - Lack of clear authority =>
as software
- Flexibility Conflicts development,
consulting,
auditing, or
engineering
firms.
Company Decision-making Specialization Conflict Communication
Structure
Line Centralized Level (high) Goals Vertical
Structure
(The chain
of
command)
Functional Centralized Function (high) Objective Primarily within
Structure within functions functions
Flat Shared
Matrix Collaborative, Cross functional Power struggle Multi-directional
Structure distributed (Complex)
Team Quick Decision- Team skills Conflict can Horizontal and
Making in their (very low) arise within a vertical
areas of group.
expertise.