What is an org chart?
An org chart, short for organizational chart, is a drawing of who reports to whom: one card per person or role, a line from each to their manager, arranged in layers from the top down. It shows the shape of an organization at a glance, which is why a new hire, a board and a reorg all start by asking for one.
An org chart
What it shows
- Who reports to whom: the solid lines, which are the whole point.
- Titles and departments, so a reader can tell what each person does and which part of the company they sit in.
- Layers: how many levels sit between the top and the work.
- Spans of control: how many people each manager has.
- Open roles, if the chart is honest about them, and second managers as dotted lines.
What it does not
- How work actually flows. Most work crosses the lines rather than following them.
- Seniority across branches. A card on the third row of one department is not junior to a card on the second row of another.
- Who talks to whom, who is trusted, who really decides. An assistant beside the chief executive often knows more than the second row.
- Pay, performance or anything personal, which belong in HR's files and not on a diagram people forward.
The parts of an org chart
Ten things, and the twelve-row template below carries one of each.
The parts, on one chart
Card
One person or role: name, title, department, sometimes a photo. The card is the unit; everything else on the chart is a relationship between cards.
Solid line
Reports to. Drawn from a card up to its manager. One per card, which is what makes the chart a tree.
Dotted line
A second manager: the project lead in a matrix, the discipline head in a team-based company, the chief executive a brand director also answers to. Always explained in a sentence somewhere.
Staff position
A card beside its manager rather than below: an assistant, a chief of staff, an adviser. The person supports the manager and has no reports of their own on that line.
Open role
A card with a title and no name. A plan drawn in, so a reader sees the gap as intended rather than discovered.
Contractor, intern
Marks on a card for people who are on the chart but not on the payroll in the usual way, so the reader can tell how much of the organization is permanent.
Department colors
A color per department, so the shape of each function reads without the titles.
The root
The card at the top with no manager: a chief executive, an owner, a board or a council. What sits above the root is a decision, and the hospital and local government examples give two answers.
Layers and spans
Not drawn, but readable: count the rows for layers, and the cards under each manager for spans. Both are the first things a reader who knows organizations will check.
Date and owner
Missing from most charts and should not be: when it was last true, and who to tell when it is not.
What an org chart is for
The same list, drawn for different readers. The audience decides the depth, and each of these has a guide of its own.
Onboarding
The first document a new hire keeps open, to learn names and know who to ask.
A board pack or investor update
Leadership two levels down, exported clean, with the open roles drawn in.
A hiring plan
Open roles as vacancies with a start month, so the budget and the chart say the same thing.
A reorg
Today's chart and the proposed one side by side, drafted where nobody else can see.
A merger
Two charts that do not line up, and the Day 1 chart with transition lines.
A consulting engagement
The client's current state in a day, and the findings a chart shows before any interview.
Oversight
A bank draws its three lines of defense as reporting lines, with internal audit reporting to the board; a hospital draws its medical staff accountable to the board, beside the executive.
A public page
Leadership only, with each person's consent, so customers and candidates can see who runs the place.
What a good one looks like
- Readable at the depth its reader needs: two levels for a board, a whole department for a new hire, folded below that.
- Honest: the dotted lines nobody wrote down, the open roles, the contractors, the structure the company actually runs on.
- One of it, with a date and an owner, shared as a link rather than a file so everyone sees the current version.
- Drawn from a list, so that when a row changes the picture changes, instead of a drawing that is stale a month later.
- Free of anything that would be a problem if it were forwarded, because it will be.
The words
Org chart is short for organizational (or organizational) chart. The same drawing is an organogram or organigram in British and Commonwealth English, an organigramme in French and an organigrama in Spanish. Organizational structure is the thing itself: how the company is divided and who decides what. The chart is a drawing of the structure, and the two drift apart the moment the chart stops being kept.
The first modern org chart is usually credited to the New York and Erie Railroad in 1855: designed by its general superintendent, Daniel McCallum, and drawn by the engineer George Holt Henshaw as a branching tree, with the superintendent's office at the root and the railway's divisions along the branches. The original is in the Library of Congress. It was made for the reason org charts still are: the railway had grown too big for anyone to hold in their head.
Questions people ask
- What does an org chart show?
- Who reports to whom, with each person's title and department, arranged in layers from the top. Read carefully it also shows how many levels the organization has, how many people each manager has, where the open roles are and, if the dotted lines are drawn, who answers to two people. It does not show how work flows, who is senior across branches, or anything about pay or performance.
- What are the parts of an org chart?
- Cards, one per person or role; solid lines from each card to its manager; dotted lines for second managers; staff positions beside a manager rather than below; open roles drawn as cards without a name; marks for contractors and interns; and a color per department. The root is the card at the top with no manager. A good chart also carries a date and the name of whoever keeps it.
- What is the difference between an org chart and an organizational structure?
- The structure is how the company is actually divided and who decides what; the chart is a drawing of it. A company has a structure whether or not anyone draws it. The chart is only worth having while it matches, which is why it should be drawn from a list that changes when people do.
- Who should be on an org chart?
- Everyone in scope for its reader, with the scope decided first: leadership for a board, a department for a new hire, everyone for HR. Contractors, agencies and interns belong on it marked as what they are; open roles belong on it as vacancies; the people who are leaving and have not said so do not.
- Does an org chart show seniority?
- Only within one branch. A card is below the card it reports to; that is all a row means. Two cards on the same row in different departments may be a director and a coordinator, and a card on the third row of a large department often outranks a card on the second row of a small one. Read the titles, not the rows.
- What is an organogram?
- The same thing. Organogram and organigram are the usual words in British and Commonwealth English, organizational chart or org chart in American English, organigrama in Spanish. They all mean a drawing of who reports to whom.
- How often should an org chart be updated?
- Whenever a person joins, leaves or moves, which is why a chart drawn from a list beats a drawing: change the row and the picture follows. Failing that, re-import from the HR system each quarter, and give the chart a date so a reader knows how far to trust it.
- What is a span of control?
- The number of people who report directly to one manager. Around five to eight is typical; over about eight the manager stops managing and starts routing, and under two is a title rather than a team. An org chart shows every span at a glance, which is one of the main reasons to draw one.
Now draw yours
If you have a list of names and who they report to, the chart is a few minutes away: import it and the engine draws it, dotted lines, staff cards and open roles included. Building is free at any size.