I would like to understand matrix reporting success in organization design. Specifically, if there are views of having dotted line reporting from a different location into the US? Does Line management and dotted line management work in your experience?
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Chief Information Security Officer in Healthcare and Biotecha year ago
In my experience, its not a good idea to pursue; we faced lot challenges in terms of accountability and delivery.
1) for anything to to succeed the outcomes and how it shall be measured will become relevant. I suggest to think thru what is that subteam / team supposed to deliver and what will success look like. For instance the SOC/Cyberdefence team, you may want to have efficient ways to focus on alerts that matter and their response vs say the noise. OR you may want the team to be ensuring right coverage and right levels orchestration. That "what is the outcome" comes from the security objective laid out
2) For a variety of reasons, there are opinions on who the CISO (and therefore the team) shall roll up into. In an organization the hierarchy of the security organization may matter, but what matters most is the Sr Mgmt (CxO) layer support, the focus of board (for listed companies)
3) I'v personally had people in various geographies report to me, the cultural elements - an empathetic listening capabilty becomes important. with no offence meant, the way a colleague in Japan or china would express differs from what a Newyorker or Californian or Texan would. similarly a European vs Indian vs Fillipino. Awareness of that culture broadly matters. aka EQ. Whether you manage people in different geo or are managed by someone in different geo the awareness is relevant
4) a dotted and a straight/hard line also works, again that depends on the culture of the organization and team goal alignment. In many project / consulting oriented companies, the "people manager" is often different from the Project manager for an employee. he ends up working with both. having two lines of control may not be easy but to manage the success of outcome, that is relevant. I think of dotted/matricial reporting in the context of timeshare. Like you have timeshare vacation homes, you occupy them for a specific duration and then someone else may. you still have vested interest in the success of the property.
Hope this helps