Matrix Management May Meet Your Needs for the 80s

As engineering has faced the new, more complex technical problems, they have traditionally sought new solutions and techniques appropriate to meet these challenges. Only recently, however, have we begun to consider the use of new concepts and techniques to solve the organization problems caused by these technical changes. Many engineering organizations are finding that Matrix Management can help meet these new, more demanding requirements. Matrix management is not for everybody and requires careful planning. It violates some of the most sacred cows of organizational theory. It is, however, working successfully all over the world. If engineering management can be as open minded about their management concepts as they require their engineers to be about their scientific and engineering concepts, then Matrix Management may be a valuable tool to meet the management challenges of the 80s.