Idiot's Guide to Matrix Management

I really have to give credit to the evil genius who came up with the Matrix Management concept. Somebody figured out that when people work directly alongside their bosses on a daily basis, the boss might notice they are hard workers. This is especially the case if the boss is a good boss. If the boss is a good boss, the subordinate will try to work harder in order to please the boss. A genuine relationship starts to form between the boss and subordinate. The boss in turn, will be more inclined (and accountable) to give his subordinates high performance reviews and pay increases that they deserve. The result is higher employee satisfaction, higher work output, and better overall products and services form the company. So what’s the problem?

Well, some corporate executive realized he had nothing to do one day, but saw a need to increase shareholder value (short-term, of course). The easiest way to do that is by cutting payroll to reduce the bottom line.

The solution: Create multiple bosses. Then separate the real boss (Functional Manager) from the employees, so he does not see what they do on a regular basis. Instead, employee feedback will come to the Functional Manager from unofficial bosses, like team leaders (Lead and IPT Lead). The genuine relationship between the employee and the manager will thus be broken.

But there is so much more to it than that. The evil genius in this multi-boss setup is the fact that people generally forget the good stuff and only remember the bad. So on average, performance reviews and pay raises will be lower than they were before, only because team leaders will simply forget to tell the functional managers all the good stuff.

Here’s an example:
You had 11 accomplishments in the first 11 months of the year, plus 2 accomplishments in the last month. You made 2 minor mistakes in the first 11 months of the year, and zero mistakes in the past month. Now what feedback will your real boss (Functional Manager) get from the team leaders (Lead and IPT Lead)?

They will tell your Functional Manager only what they remember: that you had 2 successes and made 2 mistakes last year. Beforehand, your boss would have remembered the 13 accomplishments…because you would have reminded him and held him accountable if he didn’t! But now, you don’t know who to hold accountable. So what should have been an outstanding performance review and pay raise, has become an average performance review and average pay raise.

Now across the board, employees are dissatisfied that they have three bosses and get no recognition for their achievements. Performance is down, programs fall behind schedule, and all the smart employees look for better jobs, leaving behind only the idiots still willing to work under such horrible conditions. But hey, I think the stock price went up about ten cents back in the nineties.“Problem” solved.

Because I have three bosses who I can't hold accountable for anything, I throw rocks.