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

CHAPTER 5
INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
attention to safeguards and fiduciary issues relative to the inadequate attention to
other aspects of quality and AAA. The SDN merger exacerbated this tendency.
5.35 From an organizational perspective, the creation of the SDN Network is an
imperfect solution to the perception that network boundaries are insurmountable.
If structural merger was the only solution, SDN would need to be merged with the
PREM Network to ensure the integration of poverty objectives (which represent the
Bank’s overarching mission) into infrastructure sectors . These are precisely the kind
of barriers that the matrix system was designed to overcome but has as yet been
unable to do so because of the lack of a supportive incentive framework.
COUNTRY LEVEL
5.36 The creation of SDN has added another layer to an already complex
management structure, with coordination of the portfolio, rather than quality, as
the primary objective. Most Regions appointed SDN sector leaders or coordinators
at the country level—adopting the Latin America and the Caribbean model—to help
country directors cope with the large number of SDN staff in each country team.
5.37 Latin America and the Caribbean Region has used a model of “sector
leaders” for each sector department since 1997, but responsibilities of SDN sector
leaders substantially increased after the merger. Latin America and the
Caribbean’s sector leaders are de facto shadow managers, co-located with country
directors and providing a key link between the country departments and sector
departments. They are responsible for work program coordination, quality
assurance, portfolio monitoring, and performance feedback on country team
members to sector managers. After the creation of SDN, the sector leader model was
retained in Latin America and the Caribbean, but the sector leaders for ESSD and
INF were merged at the country level, increasing their span of control and reducing
their ability to provide quality assurance across all eight SDN sectors evenly..
5.38 East Asia and the Pacific created a matrix within a matrix within a matrix
(Box 5.2). EAP combined the former ESSD sectors under one sector manager and all
the infrastructure sectors under another sector manager in headquarters, while
merging all eight sectors under one manager or sector leader in each CMU. In the
three largest country offices—China, Indonesia, and Vietnam—SDN staff are
managed by a field-based sector manager who oversees the SDN portfolio. In the
three smaller CMUs, SDN staff are managed by a field-based “country sector leader”
who acts as a de facto manager. These managers manage all country-based staff and
the country portfolio for all eight SDN sectors, while the sector managers in
headquarters represent the Region on three and five Sector Boards, respectively,
with no associated operational role. East Asia and the Pacific thus has a third-level
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