Jay addresses the design of successful matrix organizations. He features the Star Model as a guide to design. He emphasizes the point that designing a successful matrix is less about structure and more about designing management processes, creating joint goals, managing conflict, clarifying roles and responsibilities and creating strong management teams; ends with HR practices, reward systems and selection criteria to complete the Star Model.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Designing Matrix Organizations that Actually Work: How IBM, Procter & Gamble and Others Design for Success
Organization structures do not fail, says Jay Galbraith, but management fails at implementing them correctly. This is why, he explains, the idea that the matrix does not work still exists today, even among people who should know better.
Boardroom Realities: Building Leaders Across Your Board
The aim of the book Boardroom Realities by Jay Conger (Jossey-Bass, 2009) is to help you address the governance realities facing boardrooms today and to demonstrate that boardroom leadership and character make the primary difference in the performance of the board.
Fixing Executive Compensation: Right Time, Wrong Approach
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) shares that as a result of the executive compensation regulations imposed on companies taking TARP funding and the AIG bonus payments, the door has been opened for increased federal regulation of executive compensation.
Reducing Labor Costs: Choosing the Right Approach
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) states that CEOs are increasingly saying that their companies’ human capital is its most important asset. It is also obvious that it is many companies’ largest business expense.
Dealing with Rough Times: A Capabilities Development Approach to Surviving and Thriving
Susan A. Mohrman (CEO) and Christopher G. Worley (CEO) state that during rapid change and extreme threat, steering the ship is not sufficient. Leaders must introduce approaches that tap the energies of employees throughout the organization.
Action Research: An Overview
This paper by Susan A. Mohrman (CEO) addresses the history of action research, its features, and how it differs from more traditional science-based research.
Handbook of Collaborative Management Research
This handbook edited by A. B. Shani, S. A. Mohrman, W. A. Pasmore, B. Stymne, & N. Adler. (SAGE Publications, 2008) provides the latest thinking, methodologies and cases in the rapidly growing area of collaborative management research.
Relational Capital: How it Matters and Why it’s Walking Out the Door
Theresa M. Welbourne (CEO) states that today, more than ever before, as companies downsize and change their organizations to meet the new challenges they face, relational capital is exiting, and no one even sees it strolling past them on the way out.
Resource Movement: Can We Predict Growth and Decline?
Leadership Pulse by Theresa M. Welbourne (CEO) is an on-going learning opportunity for leaders from around the world to share their ideas and thoughts on issues relevant to leaders in today’s ever changing business environment.
Pay at the Top: When HR Makes a Difference
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) and John W. Boudreau (CEO) state that despite its importance, relatively little is known about HR’s role in board decision making concerning executive and board compensation and executive succession.
What Makes HR a Strategic Partner?
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) and John W. Boudreau (CEO) share that for several decades, the HR function in corporations has been encouraged to become a strategic partner. Data from a longitudinal study of large corporations suggest that HR is not now a strategic partner and that little or no movement toward it becoming one has occurred.
