Clarity of manager roles and performance of R&D multidisciplinary projects in matrix structures

The matrix structure recommends itself as a convenient framework for implementing cross‐disciplinary projects. However, this structure tends to generate conflict between project and disciplinary managements. In excess, conflict can reduce performance. The aim of the work described in this paper was to see whether conflict could be controlled by better definition of the respective roles of project and functional managers. The study was carried out in a large laboratory in Brazil. A group of project managers, responsible for 58 cross‐disciplinary projects, quantified their perceptions of the strength of their responsibilities for ten management activities, via a specially devised questionnaire. A Clarity about Responsibilities Index (CRI) was constructed to represent the fraction of these activities each respondent felt responsible for. Project performance was measured according to four criteria, technical, cost, schedule and client satisfaction. The results show that better technical performance was associated with higher role clarity; no significant association was found with the other performance measures. The author discusses the reasons for these results, the validity of the measures used and the generality of the conclusions.