What are the responsibilities of the project manager in a matrix organization?

In the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) by the Project Management Institute.  organization are classified in three varieties: as:

• functional -  A hierarchical organization where each employee has one clear superior, staff are grouped by areas of specialization, and managed by a person with expertise in that area.   

• projectized - an organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign priorities, apply resources, and direct the work of persons assigned to the project.

• matrix: Any organizational structure in which the project manager shares responsibility with the functional managers for assigning priorities and for directing the work of persons assigned to the project.

Matrix organizations allow functional departments to focus on their specific business competencies and allow projects to be staffed with specialists from throughout the organization. For instance, Database Administrators may all report to one functional department, but would be allocated out to work on various projects in other departments. A Legal resource might report to the Legal Department, but be assigned to a project in another department that needs legal expertise. It is common for people to report to one person in the functional organization, while working for one or two project managers from other departments. The main advantage of the matrix organization is the efficient allocation of all resources, especially scarce specialty skills that cannot be fully utilized by only one project. For instance, data modelling specialists may not be utilized full-time on a project, but can be fully leveraged by working on multiple projects. The matrix-based organization is also the most flexible when dealing with changing business needs and priorities.

The main disadvantage is that the reporting relationships are complex. Some people might report to functional manager for whom little work is done, while actually working for one or more project managers. It becomes more important for staff members to develop strong time management skills to ensure that they fulfil the work expectations of multiple managers. This organization also requires communication and cooperation between multiple functional and project managers that all need time from the same resources.

Functional organizations are not nightmares for Project Managers, but one of the challenges that a Project Manager will face in this environment is receiving enough attention "from the top" paid to their project. It's a great idea, in these situations, to have a Project Coordinator, which is simply a person at an executive level who will fight for your project to obtain the resources it needs.

Matrix organizations try and synthesize aspects of the projectized and the functional organizations. I use the word try not facetiously, but rather pragmatically: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Two types of matrix organizations exist, weak ones and strong ones. Weak ones lean towards the functional world and thus don't route a lot of authority to Project Managers, while stronger ones lean towards the projectized end of the spectrum and route more power to the Project Manager.

Most organizations fall somewhere between the fully functional and fully projectized organizational structure. These are matrix organizations. Three points along the organizational continuum have been defined. They are:

Weak/Functional Matrix – A project manager (often called a project administrator under this type of organization) with only limited authority is assigned to oversee the cross-functional aspects of the project. The functional managers maintain control over their resources and project areas.  This matrix still retains most of the problems associated with a functional organization. The project administrator’s role is to attempt to alleviate communication issues between functional managers and track overall project progress.

Balanced Functional Matrix – A project manager is assigned to oversee the project. Power is shared equally between the project manager and the functional managers.  Proponents of this structure believe it strikes the correct balance, bringing forth the best aspects of functional and projectized organizations. However, this is the most difficult system to maintain as the sharing of power is a very delicate proposition. This is also the most complex organizational structure to maintain.

Strong/Project Matrix – A project manager is primarily responsible for the project. Functional managers provide technical expertise and assign resources on an as-needed basis.  Because project resources are assigned as necessary there can be conflicts between the project manager and the functional manager over resource assignment. The functional manager has to staff multiple projects with the same experts.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the projectized organization, shown in Figure 2-8. In a projectized organization, team members are often collocated. Most of the organization�s resources are involved in project work, and project managers have a great deal of independence and authority. Projectized organizations often have organizational units called departments, but these groups either report directly to the project manager or provide support services to the various projects.

Figure 2-9. Weak Matrix Organization

Figure 2-10. Balanced Matrix Organization

Matrix organizations, as shown in Figures 2-9 through 2-11, are a blend of functional and projectized characteristics. Weak matrices maintain many of the characteristics of a functional organization and the project manager role is more that of a coordinator or expediter than that of a manager. In similar fashion, strong matrices have many of the characteristics of the projectized organization, and can have full-time project managers with considerable authority and full-time project administrative staff. While the balanced matrix organization recognizes the need for a project manager, it does not provide the project manager with the full authority over the project and project funding (Figure 2-6).

Figure 2-11. Strong Matrix Organization

Figure 2-12. Composite Organization

Most modern organizations involve all these structures at various levels, as shown in Figure 2-12 (Composite Organization). For example, even a fundamentally functional organization may create a special project team to handle a critical project. Such a team may have many of the characteristics of a project team in a projectized organization. The team may include full-time staff from different functional departments, may develop its own set of operating procedures and may operate outside the standard, formalized reporting structure.

This organizational type assigns each worker two bosses in two different hierarchies. One hierarchy is "functional" and assures that each type of expert in the organization is well-trained, and measured by a boss who is super-expert in the same field. The other direction is "executive" and tries to get projects completed using the experts. Projects might be organized by regions, beneficiary types, or some other schema.

Matrix management is a type of management used by some organizations.  It is different from projectized management of  projectized organization.

Under matrix management, all people who do one type of work are in a pool. For example, all engineers may be in one engineering department and report to an engineering manager. These same engineers may be assigned to different projects and report to a project manager while working on that project. Therefore, each engineer may have to work under several managers to get his or her job done. Proponents of matrix management suggest that there are two advantages to matrix management. First, it allows team members to share information more readily across task boundaries. Second, it allows for specialization that can increase depth of knowledge and allow professional development and career progression to be managed. The disadvantage of matrix management is that employees can become confused due to conflicting loyalties. A properly managed cooperative environment, however, can neutralize these disadvantages. In order for the system to work, all parties must be willing to talk to each other to learn what their different objectives and goals are. Matrix management can put some difficulty on the project managers because they must work closely with other managers and workers in order to complete the project. The functional managers may have different goals, objectives, and priorities than the project managers, and these would have to be addressed in order to get the job done. One advantage of matrix management is that it is easier for a manager to loan an employee to another manager without making the change permanent. It is therefore easier to accomplish work objectives in an environment when task loads are shifting rapidly between departments.

There are reasons why matrix management can be counterproductive, unless  matrix is not rigidly hierarchical.  Learning also becomes person oriented and used for maintaining the power position.  A learning organization instead requires that knowledge is shared and evenly distributed in the organization.

What is the role of a project manager in a matrix organization?

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