Functional organizations initially sound like the better organization because hierarchy is clear cut and you can foresee where you have the opportunity for growth within the company. This could provide reassurance for employees. However, the lack of interdepartmental coordination and full control of decision making on a topic being assigned to one person sounds like a recipe for disaster. I don’t have much industry experience but during my short time in industry I was able to get acquainted with the different projects going on because of how facilitated the communication between departments is. It was easy to pick up the phone and call R&D to ask about a project or ask QA for guidance. Decisions are made after consulting the specialties within the different departments. Matrix organizations seem to have the proper balance in my opinion. Information flows which is the key to success, and there are no cliques. The downside is the difficulty in scheduling and possible conflicting ideas between the two bosses. It is my opinion that communication has to be of highest priority to avoid conflict and delays in this type of organization.