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THE FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION 15

Figure 1.2a The Functional Organization

General
Manager

Finance Personnel Manufacturing Sales Engineering

Benefits Salary Hiring Civil Mechanical Electrical
Administration

Exempt Exempt Drafting
Design
Non-Exempt Non-Exempt Engineering

during fabrication, and then back to the Manager of Marketing to be delivered
to the client.

I won’t say that these models can’t work. But there are several potential im-
pediments. A really big one is the lack of recognition, measurement, and reward
for project performance. When you read the position guides for these man-
agers, there is nothing even remotely suggestive of a project management re-
sponsibility. People tend to work to meet expressed management objectives. If
project performance isn’t one of them, where is the motivation to focus on the
project objective as compared to the functional objectives? And even if these
managers did aspire to superior project performance, where did they get the
skills to manage projects?

Then there are the conflicts. Let’s say that the Manager of Engineering is sup-
porting five projects. He is the project manager for one of the five, and is sup-
porting the other four. When there is contention for scarce resources, guess
which project gets first choice?

If the firm insists on maintaining a pure Functional Organization, as it moves
into a growing projects environment, effort must be put into obtaining and grow-
ing project management skills. Job descriptions, measurements, and rewards