Matrix Management articles and case studies

Several of our clients have asked for case studies and examples of matrix management in other companies. As there seems to be such demand I thought I would spend some time searching.

Be careful however with case studies – you can’t just lift experiences from one organization to another and life is much more complicated than a case study. I am also not a supporter of the case study methodology in learning about people management (my main focus) because everyone gets good answers in case studies on management topics, unfortunately under time pressure and the realities of daily business life we don’t behave as we would in theory.

Most people know how to be excellent manages but somehow we don’t do it in practice. That’s why in our training we tend to use behavioural simulations rather than case studies (which I also find a bit dry)

Having said that, here are some links to articles and cases on matrix management – use them with care.

Matrix papers

These require payment so more for the serious student:

• The Classic HBR article Matrix Management: Not a Structure, a Frame of Mind (There’s a review of this paper: here)
• Questia category page for matrix papers and articles
• Emerald Publishing‘s papers on matrix management

Case studies

• Matrix Management of Projects and Power Struggles: A Case Study of an R&D Laboratory
• Case study on matrix management in hospitals (There’s a review of this paper: here)
• HBR video and papers on Matrix Organization at Hewlett-Packard’s Santa Rosa Systems Division
• HBR Case study on ABBs matrix (There’s a review of this paper: here)

See more of our insights on matrix management or view an interactive graphic of our matrix management learning path and module contents.