If you currently work in Industry, tell us what kind of organization you work with, i.e. whether it is a functional, matrix, or project-based one.
If you do not work in Industry yet, tell us what kind you feel you would be most suited for, and why.
I work in a Project-based organization, I work at Celgene which was bought by another company called BMS. BMS is an American Pharmaceutical company that works and do research and development in biologics, I work in the CAR T project for cancer treatment. However, the BMS works on several other projects such as cardiovascular, Diabetes, and HIV.
From my point of view, the pros of an project based organization is preventing the formation of silos between the departments, even though, the company still have quality assurance, quality control , manufacture operators and many other departments, we feel that we are one big department. On the other hand, there is a silos between the projects, as if we are multiple small companies in the same building.
Initially I was not able identify what type of origination I was working at, however after getting myself acquainted it was very clear that it was a Matrix Organization.
Only reason I was not able to identify what type of organization I was at because I was only in Project initially. So was under the impression that it was project-based Organization, however as I get myself adjusted and started making an impact in our team/project was placed into various other projects as an SME for the Quality Department. The pros and cons mentioned in our lecture were right on the money in the sense that, being in a Matrix Organization is great learning experience especially for someone like me who is very new the industry. Even though I am in quality, I am still able to learn lot about Regulatory, Marketing etc just becuase in each project there are several SME's from various departments. However, as mentioned on the lecture video everyone has 2 bosses therefore it becomes little difficult to manage priorities, and if you are not direct in your communication with your bosses several delays can occur and even overlap.
I haven't had a chance yet to work in Project-based or a functional Organization, however based on what we learned in the lecture I would not be okay with functional organization, as I like to work in a cross functional team. From the information provided by the lecture seems like Project-based organization are consulting firms, which is something I am interested in pursing in the near future.
I do not work in industry yet, but I believe I would be most suited for either a matrix or project-based organization. I enjoy working in groups with individuals who have different focuses or experience. I feel that I work best in this setting due to the ability to work with diverse fields, rather than working primarily within a department as the functional organization does.
Between project-based organizations and matrix organizations, I feel I would be more suited for a matrix organization. Although both organizations function through the use I project teams, I feel that I would learn and grow the most professionally by working with different project teams as the matrix organization does, rather than remaining within the same project team in the project-based organization.
While I am currently not working in industry, I do have experience in working for both function and project-based organizations. For me the results were the same as the size of the projects were always small. As such I did not get to witness any of the issues that arise in those organization types. Considering I have never worked in a matrix organization I can’t say if I would work well in such a system, especially considering the power distribution of the company can vary. In my opinion I prefer project-based organizations though because they allow for more focus for larger scale projects. To me functional organizations can function well, but they are not my preferred workstyle.
I feel as if I would be most suited for a project-based organization. I don’t personally have experience working in industry, but I do have a lot of experience working in academic labs. I thrive under conditions in which I can focus on a specific project and in which I have a select team of those who work on that project with me. While I know that matrix organizations can be more efficient, I would get easily lost in having to jump from project-to-project as determined by my skill set and by what my managers request. I work best when I can focus on a singular project and I find immense satisfaction in seeing a project through to the end.
That being said, I could see myself working on multiple projects at once as long as I get to continue to work with the same group of people. This borders the, “moving people around per project” motif of a matrix organization but does not include moving employees around per the project.
The least suitable organization for me would be a functional organization, mostly because I prefer to work in teams that have varied skill sets. I find varied experiences help improve project success since you have access to a much wider range of information and experience.
I do not work in any industry now, but I feel functional organization is the best organizational structure among the 3 organizational structures. It organizes the employees based on their skills and expertise.It is a hierarchal organizational structure where employees could enhance the work efficiency and productivity due to specialized skills and technology.
I currently work in a matrix based organization and I think it works great once you have enough talent and personnel to work within the cross functional team. The past year has drawn up an issue with the loss of talent due to retention and hiring during a pandemic that strains the cross functional team that has members on multiple projects. I personally enjoy working on multiple projects at the same time where I am involved in biomechanical evaluation of prototypes and process equivalent implants and instruments. It can be a great learning experience to be able to stay flexible on my time in different areas of the business though the last year has put some strain on my lab. There are multiple times where my coworkers and I feel the stress of having more work with smaller teams.
Although there are multiple areas of strain caused by the matrix organizational structure, my company does provide training for how to navigate in a matrix that allows everyone to understand their role in the company. It was a real cool visual to understand how many bubbles your influence impacts in the business when compared to an organizational chart that may seem to just have a singular direction.
In undergrad, I worked as an intern in an FDA lab which was project based . It was my first exposure to some areas of biotechnology. Once I graduated undergrad, I got a job as a lab tech in immunohistochemistry which used products that are a direct result of biotechnology. After exposure to these things, im not sure what sector of biotechnology I truly want to land due to the many opportunities for exploration.
Hello everyone,
I currently work in a "functional organization". I work or the Department of Defense- the United States Army. I work specifically for the United States Army Medical Command, it has been 13 years for this institution specifically. By definition it truly is function. The moneys of the MEDCOM is distributed from a federal level therefore it is not based on a particular persons accomplishment, furthermore it is not even based on one particular organization. We sit under an umbrella that is divided by series and functions. For example, we have a human resources department that deal specially with the MEDCOM specific policies that govern employee behavior and then we have a Civilian Personal Department that specifically handles the hiring of employees and the Office of Personal Management policies and procedures. A great example of how project management is broken down in this type of atmosphere would be what we call PBAC (personal hiring actions) I only deal very minimally with this. This is where the Civilian personnel is in charge of finding and allocating the funds to hire new personal. They have to write a plan to validate as to why a particular department should be granted new positions, they have to research, provide a budget (show where the money would come from), and provide evidence as to why hiring personnel will benefit the department and how an additional body will increase revenue within the department hired. Then they have to present these facts and if approved, they get permission to hire new personnel in the department.
