The influx of technology creates a challenging business environment, which in turn requires new developmental strategies to compete in it. With functional teams and single hierarchical structures, the companies handled projects effectively for decades. Recently, companies are digitizing their employee goals management and performance management processes to adopt agility throughout the organization. Therefore, traditional methods are being repudiated.   

Research asserts that around 68 percent of companies have adopted a strategy for digital transformation and others are in the process of creating one. Thus, technology has changed the way of doing business and has increased speed and productivity. The inflow of projects with larger size and complexity have also increased. Functional teams are not effective anymore for all products and projects, and thus matrix organizational structure is being espoused.  

Research by Josh Bersin Academy suggests that 92% percent of companies are redesigning their teams to increase speed, adopt agility, and share information. The matrix organization is not a new concept, and it had been leveraged by various institutions to support their objectives. In the IT industry, the increasing need for new strategies to enhance productivity brought matrix organizational structure into the picture.   

Matrix organizations bring employees of different teams to work together, and it promotes collaborative teamwork. A Gallup survey asserts that around 84 percent of US employees are working in cross-functional teams. Matrix organizational structure can become a failure or a great success depending upon how well you use and implement the strategy.   

Goals are Managed Differently in a Matrix Organization  

The approach you used to manage goals in a single hierarchical team will not help you in a matrixed team.  

A Gallup survey suggests that the percentage of matrixed employees who are unclear of their goals are higher when compared to nonmatrix employees. Research by McKinsey asserts that only a minority of matrixed employees are clear about their goals, whereas 60% of non-matrixed employees know what is expected of them.   

Being clear does not mean increased productivity. The goals and structure should suit the business needs. So, the matrix organizational structure should have a transformative goals management. In the flawed matrix goals management, the employees are ambiguous about their roles and what is expected out of them. Therefore, it is significant to adopt the RACI tool.   

R – Responsible   

A – Accountable  

C – Consulted  

I – Implement   

The question ‘Who’ for each mentioned letter should be answered by the managers to give role clarity to the employees. The matrixed team should be monitored by the managers, and the employees should be aware of their team’s goals. Then, the employees should set goals for themselves. Setting goals for themselves would make the employees feel empowered. Empowerment fuels innovation and agility.   

Goals Management is Much More Than Goal Setting  

Setting goals is important, but the goal completion should be tracked by the manager. The matrixed employees mostly are not clear of whom they should report to. The cross-functional managers should make it clear to the team through one on one meetings. Goals can also be explained to the team in the meetings. The goals should align with the transforming organizational goals.  

Time management is important to build trust between the organization and the client. Managing deadlines is also a core aspect of goals management. The matrixed employees have a lot of issues and work to address, but they should learn to prioritize the works and manage projects and the overall goal.  

Large companies find it hard to use outdated software that supports only the functional team structures. There are many software products in the market that support matrix teams. Software like Synergita helps in managing the goals, tracks the progress of the goals, and makes multiple reporting easier. Being clear of the goals and working together towards a common goal increase the productivity of the matrixed employees.