Beijing Eaps Consulting, Inc.

Costco Wholesale Corporation has an organizational structure which has features of a functional and divisional structure; so that we can understand that there is a characteristic formation of a weak matrix organizational structure (Panmorecom, 2015).

With the introduction of the Matrix organizational structure, there would also be an improvement with flexibility within CanGo that would allow resources to flow from one functional project to another. Once this matrix environment is balanced, there would be one project manager who would oversee the group of functional managers (each of whom would be leading a project group). Apart from the benefits mentioned above, the matrix management structure, will also empower the department directors to communicate and collaborate with one another. This ability to communicate will equip the directors to provide the staff members with the necessary information to successfully complete

The given case study is about the company, Beijing EAPS Consulting Inc., which deals with the providing employee assistance services in China’s mainland. And focused upon studying, it has been found that the given company before the year of 2006 drives its business unsystematically and does well because of the small number of employees and their multitasking ability together with minor volume of the business functions. However, after 2006, it has received a bigger contract from the giant mobile companies, such as Guangzhou Mobile and Beijing Mobile. Hence, they amend their strategy to cater received business needs, which bring more business profit. They adopted project management structure to facilitate the expected and existing additional business; however, it creates chaos in the organization itself as dilemma caused by the structure, which lacks crucial management practices, such as priority decisions, hierarchy of the management functions, communication gap, and even, workload grows stress among limited number of employees as the said structure had poor work distribution process. The thesis of the paper is to render a recommendation report for Beijing EAPS Consulting Inc. It will analyze company structure and improvable areas together with discussing conflict, brought into the light by the said structure and its solution.

This case study was originally prepared as part of Project Management Applications, the capstone course of the Master of Science in Project Management in the Department of Management Science at The George Washington University, by the graduating students listed

Matrix organizational structures combine the characteristics of a functional and divisional organizational structure. The matrix organizational structure works more like a team. Instead of department heads, each team has a leader. Matrix organizational structures bring together employees who focus on a project, but fill different roles from across your business. The matrix organizational structure has the most decentralization, which means it can confuse employees about who is in charge. The matrix organizational structure is appropriate if your business operates on an international level, or serves different geographic regions.

Throughout my career history I have managed several business critical projects; these projects have given me a wealth of knowledge, industry experience and the confidence to take on more advanced projects that are asked of me. Every project that I have ever been responsible for, I have always ensured that there was a comprehensive project plan written up. This included well defined requirements, realistic schedules, clearly identified resources, risk assessment, and budgetary due diligence.

Top executives and other employees located in different positions operate corporation projects together, thus improved coordination of activities (Lewis, 2012). Besides, matrix organization model allows MCS to make use of the experts’ skills and knowledge better by pulling them from their respective offices and allocating them different responsibilities in running the business projects.

How an organization is structured has enormous consequences not only for the success of its business but, also, for the success of its employees.

Describe what a matrix organization is. Make sure you discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this structure. (20)

(Organizational Structure, 2017)This form of organization structure has many positive attributes such as being more stable and less inclined to change and also it groups, peoples with similar knowledge and skills are grouped together There are also negative factors in functional structure organization such as the structure makes it harder to respond to the market quickly. While using this form of structured communication sometimes can become strained and the level of cooperation can be compromised. Another form of organizational structure is a customer service organization structure in which the customer service provides directions for the employees and the business. The overall customer service helps to support the whole business model. It just depends on the type of business and the size on how successful the customer service organization structure going to be. There are positive factors such to this form of organizational structure such as different employment levels, which leads to better pay grades and performance incentives. The organization also offers better employment opportunities to its employees. There are more organizational structures that center around employees such as a matrix structure in which employee’s relationships are set up in a grid and it is not required to report to hierarchy. There are also many

Project planning involves the creation of the project management plan as well as Earned value

Ron Rosenhead is Managing Director of Project Agency. He believes the modern day manager needs project management skills to deliver the organisations’ agenda. He therefore decided to write this book to help support them. The writing of this Tips Booklet fits nicely with the company motto “Helping organisations deliver projects effectively.” The word project can be misleading. Many people think of large

engineering, marketing etc) into specific teams to work on special projects on a temporary basis. (CRF Online Classrooms 2010) This in turn creates the possible need for an employee to have more than one superior to whom they would have to report to. (Global Security Glossary 2010) The matrix structure focuses upon a concoction of functional and divisional structures, where the formations of teams of these specialists are based upon the focus of their particular environment (i.e. products serviced/provided, market nature, geographical setting etc.) (Bartol et al. p 323)

There are some concerns regarding the managerial responsibilities in BEC’s current structure. Employees are confused and they are complaining about the task they receive from both the department managers and the project managers, and this leads to conflicts in deadlines, prioritizing errors etc. Another problem is that the employees do not know who their direct supervisor is, since both the project manager and the department managers are located on the same level in the BEC hierarchy, and they work together on planning and conducting the projects. This lead to a situation where the employees are not sure which manager has more authority and make a final decision, and the managers believe that they do not have enough authority to give direction to the employees.

In order to consolidate ABB’s numerous companies spanning across six continents, Barnevik utilized a matrix structure. Barnevik, an avid supporter of decentralization, wanted ABB to be very flat. Under ABB’s matrix structure, there were never more than five people between the CEO and the shop floor (Kets de Vries 1998). This matrix structure initially began with the 8 business segments and their 65 business areas on one axis and all of the geographical regions and their countries on the other axis. The business segment and geographical arrangement supported the original business strategy of leveraging core competencies and focusing on the local customer. Barnevik believed that technology allowed for better and faster communication which enabled his decentralized organizational structure. Centralized reporting and communication was the only operation that Barnevik wanted