{"id":20406,"date":"2008-11-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:48:16","slug":"too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Too much control in the matrix organization &#8211; Matrix Cartoon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our research shows a drift towards increasing central control in many matrix organizations and also that matrix organizations require decentralized <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/balancing-control-and-empowerment-in-complex-teams-how-leaders-find-the-right-balance-in-matrixed-cross-functional-and-virtual-environments\/\">balance of control and empowerment<\/a> to function.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-91273\" src=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Life-in-a-matrix-5-Central-control-300x212.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"547\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Life-in-a-matrix-5-Central-control-300x212.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Life-in-a-matrix-5-Central-control.webp 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 547px) 100vw, 547px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are many factors that subtly undermine trust and empowerment in matrix organizations &#8211; distance, cultures, time-zones, communicating through technology, functional differences, and organizational silos can all create or magnify misunderstanding and some managers respond by getting more involved and tightening control.<\/p>\n<p>If your organization feels like the one in the cartoon then you need to put in place a systematic process to increase empowerment and enable local decision making. If you don&#8217;t then eventually all decisions will be escalated to the centre &#8211; causing delay, cost and dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, it is hard to empower people you don&#8217;t know can do the job or don&#8217;t really trust. That&#8217;s&#8217; why it needs to be a systematic, managed process and not just an exhortation to increase empowerment again.<\/p>\n<p>Find put more about how to create a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/balancing-control-and-empowerment-in-complex-teams-how-leaders-find-the-right-balance-in-matrixed-cross-functional-and-virtual-environments\/\">healthy balance between control and empowerment<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Too much control in the matrix organization &#8211; Matrix Cartoon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-matrix-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Too much control in the matrix organization - Matrix Cartoon - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Too much control in the matrix organization - Matrix Cartoon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Too much control in the matrix organization - Matrix Cartoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Too much control in the matrix organization - Matrix Cartoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-10T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T12:48:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Life-in-a-matrix-5-Central-control.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"448\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"316\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/too-much-control-in-the-matrix-organization-matrix-cartoon\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevan Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3ad6577af9c33612e410fbcdc3ff2a9a\"},\"headline\":\"Too much control in the matrix organization &#8211; 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