Matrix management of projects and power struggles: a case study of an R&D laboratory

Matrix management is an alternative form of management that involves imposing a horizontal form of management over the traditional organizational hierarchy. Instead of a single central authority, power is divided among the required number of managers in charge of equally important dimensions of the business. Matirx management has been hypothesized to lead to normative conflict that engenders nonconformist conflict behavior that threatens the matrix division of power. The application of this managerial arrangement to projects is analyzed in terms of the power struggles that ensue. A project refers to a temporary activity with specific goals to be accomplished within a definite time span. A case study of a R and D department within a multinational firm using a dual (balanced) matrix is undertaken. The results indicate that each manager will attempt to encroach on the other side's authority until the antagonism gives way to covert war and cooperation.