Hey, let's work in a matrix organization

Previously my little company's head office organization had been working under a relatively firm pyramid type of organization but under a pretty active benevolent dictator who could intervene in case of any problems with someone not working in the company's best interest and the system was working relatively well, at least from my local Japan perspective.

But recently the company was reorganized into a more "dynamic type of matrix organization" with organization charts having "dotted reporting lines" all over the place. Now, this dynamic organization has resulted that no one really knows what they're doing, who's should be doing what and who has the authority to actually make any decisions. This has now created a vacuum where a quite large number of very active smaller kingdoms has popped up and managers taking the chance to actively foil each others plans to make sure that they can get their hands on the most power and sort out old grievances.

Before, getting an approval for some activity to go ahead now usually means being shuffled around in the organization trying to get approval from a number of small popes that all want to make sure that it is perfectly clear that it's them having the authority to make a decision...

"Dotted line" reporting and "matrix organizations" must be one of the more imminent signs of the apocalypse...

(On the train home today I had my iPod on shuffle and got hit with first The House of Love with "Destroy the heart" followed by Skinny Puppy with "Far too Frail" and rounding off with "Pearl" by Chapterhouse, oddly comforting in a nostalgic type of way and the baby is of course cute and waiting for me at home - she reports straight to me and Mrs. Sunshine but we might add a dotted line to her Japanese grandparents, we'll see)