Matrix Management
I will be blunt with this one; who ever dreamt up matrix management was obviously immune to its effects. I will first try to explain the theory for any lucky enough to never be exposed to this “management” technique.
Essentially you (the poor forgotten employee) have a manager who if you’re lucky used to do your job. Your manager is responsible for all aspects of your work life except … your work.
For your work you are loaned out to the other departments in intervals based on need for your skills or abilities. The benefit is you can focus on the parts of the project that you excel in leaving all the other tasks to the people from other teams.
I compare it to outside the business world as the equivalent to being a porn actor on loan to a pimp, you both know it’s about the business but that’s where it ends. The pimp is expecting you to make money with the overweight small endowed men and you’re expecting all the customers to be well hung actors.
Usually what happens is far from the ideal your manager is loaned out as the foremost expert so has little or no time for you and that’s if your lucky enough to have a manger who knows what you do for a living. Now that the market has been flooded with MBA’s and PMP’s who are convincing the executive that you don’t need to know the business to manage it, just need to know how to manage. The worst case is the non-skilled manager with time on their hands, you can recognize these when they try to help and make it way, way worse. For the other side of the deal by the time you’re loaned to the project they have already estimated the effort required for your part and were not even a little close.
This means you have to perform duties in time frames that are not realistic and tasks are assigned to you either under your skills or not at all aligned to your skills. If you are successful then it’s all because the project manager did a good job, if you fail then it’s because you failed… No win for anyone technical.
Essentially you (the poor forgotten employee) have a manager who if you’re lucky used to do your job. Your manager is responsible for all aspects of your work life except … your work.
For your work you are loaned out to the other departments in intervals based on need for your skills or abilities. The benefit is you can focus on the parts of the project that you excel in leaving all the other tasks to the people from other teams.
I compare it to outside the business world as the equivalent to being a porn actor on loan to a pimp, you both know it’s about the business but that’s where it ends. The pimp is expecting you to make money with the overweight small endowed men and you’re expecting all the customers to be well hung actors.
Usually what happens is far from the ideal your manager is loaned out as the foremost expert so has little or no time for you and that’s if your lucky enough to have a manger who knows what you do for a living. Now that the market has been flooded with MBA’s and PMP’s who are convincing the executive that you don’t need to know the business to manage it, just need to know how to manage. The worst case is the non-skilled manager with time on their hands, you can recognize these when they try to help and make it way, way worse. For the other side of the deal by the time you’re loaned to the project they have already estimated the effort required for your part and were not even a little close.
This means you have to perform duties in time frames that are not realistic and tasks are assigned to you either under your skills or not at all aligned to your skills. If you are successful then it’s all because the project manager did a good job, if you fail then it’s because you failed… No win for anyone technical.
posted by Anonymous at 12:10 PM
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