The Matrix System at Work - Independent Evaluation Group - World ...

CHAPTER 5
INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
in the Bank-wide matrix. At the regional level, the imbalance in the relationship
between country and sector units created suboptimal tensions giving primacy to
short-term client demands over strategic country needs.
5.3 Rather than functioning as a global institution, the Bank is at risk of
evolving into six regional banks. Regional variations in structure and processes
compound the problems arising from insufficient inter-regional flows of knowledge
and expertise. Sector configuration has varied across Regions and over time in terms
of the sector groupings within SMUs or sector departments (for example, the
bundling of FPD with PREM in some Regions but not others; environment with water
in one, urban with water in others, and so on) and the cost centers, some recording
budgets at the SMU level, others at the sector department level. The role of the
country sector coordinators—who coordinate network activities in each CMU—also
varies across Regions and networks. And norms and procedures for quality assurance
differ significantly. In East Asia and the Pacific, until July 2011, country directors
chaired concept review meetings and sector directors chaired the decision meeting,
while in the other Regions, sector directors have had no formal role in the quality
assurance process. Regions also vary in the use of QERs, some (such as South Asia
and Africa) relying on them more systematically for quality, others infrequently.
5.4
5.5 Some of the inputs and rules put in place to manage the matrix system need
revamping to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of the matrix. The current
distortions cannot be resolved by tinkering at the margins if the objectives of the
matrix system are to be achieved. Major changes are needed, explicitly targeting the
key problems among existing structures that are barely coping with operational
demands. Addressing these organizational constraints may require “lateral
thinking” (De Bono 1967) 57 to find creative solutions lying beyond the range of
current assumptions and practices.
5.6 In this chapter we focus on a few of the reform inputs—listed in the
horizontal row at the top of the evaluation framework (see chapter 1)—where
organizational effectiveness issues that merit further examination have emerged
from the evaluation’s findings. The chapter begins with a summary of the key
organizational and institutional impediments—the Sector Board model; and span of
control issues and the effects of network restructuring that affect the regional and
Bank-wide matrix systems; financial and budgetary issues; and quality assurance
arrangements. These cover four of the six boxes in the row of reform inputs in the
evaluation framework. Decentralization and HR processes require much more indepth
analysis and have been left out of this evaluation
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