Dotted line

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It is a curious fact that the further up the multi-level marketing pyramid— sorry, I mean org chart — you go, and as the practical utility of line management dwindles to zero, so too increases your likelihood of having multiple line managers: usually one is designated the proper one, and the others simply “dotted” reporting lines, but organisations with a taste for the byzantine my introduce bi-modal coverage matrices say — by division and region — meaning the same person can be reporting fully to two people at once. And of course there is that old investment-bank-as--the-cruel-jungle staple, the co-heads of a business, where lucky support staff report to a two-headed credit-claiming, and responsibility-ducking hydra, rather than a single individual.

In any case, having two managers is like running two diaries, or keeping two golden sources of the same data. A recipe for confusion, resentment, misunderstanding and, quand l’ordure se frappe le ventilateur

See also

• Line manager