This past week, we learned about the 3 types of organizations: functional, project-based, and matrix. These are the typical ways a company organizes its workforce to engage in project activities. However the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown forced the workforce to accept a shift from on-site work to completely online activity. Although work from home is not a new concept, its application became the standard during the lockdown. While adjusting to the environmental shift, employees were also impacted by the negative mental, social, and physical factors brought on by the pandemic. Work culture was also heavily impacted. In particular, companies with only one major site were likely the most effected as employees were accustomed to in-person collaboration.
How did working from home impact leadership behaviors of functional heads or project managers? Would all three types of organizations experience the same challenges or would certain types be less affected? How did the sudden transition from on-site to online affect both an organization's perceived and true productivity?
The shift from an in-person environment to a virtual environment definitely had a huge impact on the workforce. For functional organizations, the shift may have impacted maintaining that traditional hierarchy that is often seen in functional organizations. This could have led the functional heads to adapt to the new environment and find new ways to ensure that the team is being effectively communicated to and coordinated properly. For project-based organizations, the shift would cause the project managers to adapt to the new environment and ensure that they are able to accurately monitor the project's progress and ensure that the team is collaborating and coordinating accurately so that the project is progressing in a timely manner. For matrix organizations, the leaders would have to adapt to navigate between functional heads and team members which would require stronger communication skills and to balance the tasks at hand. However, the shift would cause all 3 types of organizations to experience some sort of challenges. In terms of perceived and true productivity, the sudden shift may have caused the managers to believe that the perceived productivity would be less as they were not able to physically monitor the team members or the progress of the project. However, over time the managers would come to realize that the true productivity of the project would increase and not be hindered because of a decrease in commute time and an increase in flexibility.
The sudden move to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced unique challenges and benefits that affected each organizational structure differently. Functional organizations faced hurdles in maintaining clear communication across established hierarchies, which is typically facilitated by physical proximity. This may have led to delays in decision-making and hindered quick responsiveness. However, it also offered an unexpected benefit: the shift to remote work tools often flattened hierarchy somewhat, empowering lower-level employees to take initiative due to reduced direct supervision.
Project-based organizations, while benefiting from the agility of their structure, found it difficult to maintain cohesive project timelines, as remote work sometimes weakened team accountability and immediate collaboration. Managers had to adopt new digital project management tools, which, although effective, required a learning curve and sometimes strained teams that lacked prior experience with virtual project management.
In matrix organizations, leaders experienced the dual challenge of balancing virtual collaboration across both functional and project lines. This created complexities in role clarity and sometimes caused overlaps or conflicts in responsibilities. However, a significant advantage emerged as teams grew more cross-functional and adaptive, which allowed them to handle complex projects more efficiently in the long term. Overall, while the transition initially impacted perceived productivity, the adaptation to flexible work arrangements and digital solutions ultimately bolstered true productivity.
