Communication and collaboration in matrix organization operations

Speaking of matrix organization, many people think that it is a two-dimensional matrix formed by horizontal business units and vertical functional departments. In fact, matrix organization has the simplest two-dimensional and its deformations, as well as various multi-dimensional matrices. The good functioning of a matrix organization is inseparable from good communication between different dimensions. Otherwise, hilltopism and departmental walls will form.

? Communication methods are mainly divided into informal communication and formal communication. Informal communication is in addition to various trainings, studies, and group activities to enhance coordination and integration among everyone, especially the leadership. Human resources policies also have a great impact on informal communication. The two main measures are BMW's z-shaped career development channel. Such as job rotation system. This job rotation system is not just a quick rotation. Instead, employees must perform well in the corresponding department before they can move to the next position. In this way, the rotation candidates have developed rich work experience, understood the working language of different departments, and established interpersonal relationships in various departments. This personal connection provides an informal outlet for them when needed for the rest of their careers. In addition, BMW also allows the entire team of the new product development project team to work in one office location. In development, the efficiency of communication and communication is greatly improved. Just like Huawei, there are basically no people sitting there in functional departments. During meetings, discussions, testing, and joint debugging, everyone is more in the laboratory or conference room. Both of the above methods establish informal communication channels for the switch from vertical organization to horizontal organization.

The other is formal communication channels.

1. The technical review mechanism in IPD: ensures cross-department communication and exchange around product implementation during the product development process. This reflects both the assistance of horizontal teams and the collaboration of vertical teams.

2. The decision-making review mechanism in IPD: ensures communication and exchange between the development team and the decision-making organization, and carries out communication and exchange around the commercial value of the product. Vertical teams need to reach agreement first, and then horizontal teams can reach agreement.

3. Performance management: Horizontal and vertical leaders recruit employees together, set employee performance goals together, coach together during the performance coaching process, and evaluate performance together. and application of assessment results. This communication process can be carried out by three parties: horizontal leadership, vertical leadership and individual employees. The human resources management department should formulate policies and standards for the methods and techniques of the entire communication process and provide method guidance.

These informal and formal communication methods need to be based on very good personal working relationships and trust.

Just communication in operation is not enough. These can be considered as lubricants in operation. The key lies in the systematic operation of the entire matrix organization. Just like project management, if the project process, project operation mechanism and project plan are not formulated, communication alone is not enough. Therefore, operating in a matrix organization must rely on strong planning and resource allocation processes. There are three purposes for planning and resource allocation:

1. To effectively unify the goals of each dimension. Because different dimensions have different purposes, conflicts and disagreements are prone to occur.

2. Doing this plan can minimize the differences between different dimensions.

3. Sort the needs of each dimension in order of priority.

In this way, general direction consistency can be achieved through the planning process.

? The planning process is accompanied by a dispute resolution and coordination mechanism. Just like specifying performance goals, it is a process of formulating a plan. In the two-dimensional organization composed of national key account managers and national sales managers, when setting goals, the goals are decomposed into various regions according to key accounts, and each region decomposes the goals into each key account. This constitutes the common goal of reaching agreement in both vertical and horizontal dimensions. This mechanism can also be used in the formulation of project budgets and departmental budgets.

The planning process usually begins with opportunistic orders and guidance from the top. The key account team's planning and strategy development is primarily regional. The region will also formulate strategies and plans for local regional customers. If there is a conflict between the two dimensional plans, coordination will be required by the high-level decision-making team.

? This high-level decision-making organization consists of regional managers and national key account managers sitting together for face-to-face meetings to reach consensus.

Even the general manager joined the meeting. This process is consistent with the planning process decisions used by high-level ipmt organizations in IPD. Product line planning should include product and project planning and functional department planning, and the two should support each other. In order to avoid mutual support in the planning process, a consistent methodology should be followed, such as the MM methodology.

*** Colleagues assist each other in formulating plans, goals and completing performance evaluations. This collaboration model is consistent with business leaders and functional leaders formulating performance goals and plans for employees. It can be considered that the plan formulation and collaboration process of this matrix organization is nested. The same approach can be used for individuals as well as organizations and team management.

? The composition of the high-level decision-making organization of Huawei's product line: Director of Financial Management Department, Director of Quality and Cost Management Department, Director of Product Line Products and Solutions Department, Director of R&D Management Department, Director of Procurement Expert Group, The director of the supply chain product management department, etc., these are functional organizations, and there are also product line and sub-product line presidents. This organization changes as the organizational structure changes, but leaders from both vertical and horizontal teams are included.