The rising number of reporting lines in organizational structure

There are fundamental changes in the nature of industry and hence the way organizations

are structured. Twenty years back, if you were in a manufacturing setup, your manager was

your main connection to the organization. If anyone in the organization wanted to get

anything done from you, they would communicate it through your manager. Whether it’s a

process group wanting to implement greater process (ISO), an HR policy or a company

picnic, the manager for most part was the main mode of communication. Life was single-

threaded and hence also very simple. Most organizations had a simple hierarchy, there were

some places where a matrix structure would come into play, but for most part, it was

simple.

Fast-forward to email and the emergence of the knowledge economy, a knowledge worker

works directly with a number of people. Very often, you are interacting with customers and

working with different teams in the company along with their manager. The accountability is

towards multiple people. The process person will directly ask you if you are following the

process, the HR person will directly expect you to follow policy and so on. Direct manager is

only now one of the people you are accountable to. You have to keep multiple people

“posted”. The list of people in your CC list on your email is getting longer.

So if you imagine a person fitting in an organizational structure, in the early days you can

imagine him to be hanging from a rope. Over a period of time, you can imagine to be on a

swing, and now you can almost imagine him to be wearing a crown with multiple points

coming out of the crown and connecting him to different entities. The analogy goes further

in the sense that today the person is also more empowered like a king and also needs to be

more responsible. More self-drive and discipline is required for a person to succeed today

than in olden times.

With this also comes the rise of influence vs. authority. Any person in the knowledge

economy can influence everyone they connect and hence contribute more and hence also

become more valuable. Its also obviously works the other way.