ABSTRACT
The design of appropriate information and control systems should be a crucial part of any attempt to develop and implement a matrix organisation. Matrix organisations, like any other management structures, require information to function effectively. Planning procedures, information for decision making and systematic ways of monitoring and controlling performance are an essential part of the management process. Indeed for matrix organisations the need may be all the greater. For the matrix approach is invariably implanted within an existing organisation and there are usually innumerable forces that have the potential to frustrate its success. There is invariably a real need for carefully designed information and control systems that explicitly aim to support the matrix rather than neutralise or even destroy its potential. Yet, on so many occasions, the seemingly obvious need for appropriate information systems is not given the emphasis that it deserves, and matrix structures are left to exist alongside information and control systems orientated towards a previous functional management structure.
