Question

Leadership management: The state services commission is the new Zealand government’s formal adviser when it comes to human resource matters in running public sector ministries, departments and crown agencies generally. The CEO of the commission [the commissioner] is especially responsible for recruiting and managing the CEOs of all core public service ministries and departments. This adds up to having something like 29 chief executives run their organization as efficiently and effectively as they can- all under the government’s managing for outcomes framework. He has asked you for advice on what an excellent organization model might look like that can give effect to the outcomes framework. He is also after your advice on how to design/ implement your recommended model. What would you advise the commissioner and why?

Answer 1

In my views, the most effective organization structure in this case will be a matrix structure as that would facilitate the communication lines and give clear direction to the flow of ideas. The advantages of adopting matrix structure are:

• Facilitates sharing of resources across units and departments
• Specialization of skills gets facilitated
• Traditional department barriers gets broken down and efficient communication lines gets established across the system
• Problem solving becomes easy
• Innovative thinking approach gets facilitated
• Cross thinking lines get enhanced