Org chart examples
The four structures nearly every company is some mix of, and forty-two industries drawn the way they really run — including the dotted lines nobody writes down. The organizations are invented. The charts are real: laid out by the same engine you'd use, and each one downloads as a spreadsheet to start from. The five other kinds, hierarchical, line and staff, team-based, network and circular, are drawn and compared on the types of org charts page.
By industry
Each of these is a page of its own: the chart, how that kind of organization is usually structured, typical titles by level, where the charts go wrong, and the questions people ask.
- Manufacturing Two shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- Logistics Dispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- Construction Office and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startup Squads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- Nonprofit The board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practice A clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- School Departments led by teachers who also manage.
- Hotel Six divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agency Disciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities services Sites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales team Regions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firm A partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firm Practice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- Church A board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- Restaurant Front of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT department Run, build and secure, under one director.
- HR department Partners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local government Elected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility company Field crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- Bank Three lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agency Sales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- Hospital Two hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chain Head office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small business One owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance department Accounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing department Demand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service department Teams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering department Product teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations department Supply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product department Product, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firm Three practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerage Agents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agency Sales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practice A clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- University An academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce company The site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinic The doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealership The front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School district Schools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police department Patrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing home The administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management company The owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Functional Grouped by what people do.
Halcyon Foods · 13 people
When it's used
The default for most companies past about twenty people. Everyone who does the same kind of work reports up the same line, so finance sits under finance and operations under operations.
What it's good at
Deep expertise in each function, clear career paths, and no argument about who owns a decision in their own area.
Watch out for
Departments drift into silos, and anything that crosses them — a product launch, a new site — has no natural owner until it reaches the top.
Divisional Grouped by market, product or region.
Meridian Outdoor · 11 people
When it's used
Companies that run several businesses, or the same business in several places, and want each to make its own calls. Each division carries its own sales and operations; only a thin center is shared.
What it's good at
Divisions move at their own speed and are judged on their own numbers. A problem in one rarely spreads to the others.
Watch out for
The same job exists three times over. Standards drift between divisions, and the shared functions in the center spend their lives negotiating.
Matrix Two lines of reporting: a function and a project.
Northgate Robotics · 11 people
When it's used
Engineering and consulting firms where people belong to a discipline for their career but to a project for their work. The solid line is the discipline; the dotted line is the project they are on this quarter.
What it's good at
Specialists stay sharp inside their discipline while projects get exactly the mix of people they need, without anyone changing jobs.
Watch out for
Two managers means two sets of priorities. It works only when both know which of them decides what — write it down, or the person in the middle pays for the ambiguity.
Flat One layer. Everyone reports to the founder.
Brightwater Studio · 10 people
When it's used
Small companies and studios, usually under fifteen people, where a management layer would cost more than it saves. Information moves fast because there is nowhere for it to get stuck.
What it's good at
Nothing is lost in translation, decisions are quick, and everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
Watch out for
It has a ceiling. Past about ten direct reports the founder becomes the bottleneck, and the first middle manager is always hired a year too late.
None of them is quite yours
Real companies are a functional core with a divisional wing and a dotted line nobody wrote down. Start from the closest structure, from your industry, or from your own spreadsheet, and drag people until it's true.
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