20+ Sample Corporate Management Structure Charts

What Is a Corporate Management Structure Chart?

A corporate management structure chart is your organization’s typical corporate organizational chart. It marks the graphic diagram of a company’s organizational structure such as what every employee does, whom to report to, and how business decisions take place. And it is through these charts that you get the introduction of a company’s team from the manager down to the rest of the staff members.

Why Are Corporate Management Structure Charts Important?

Are you in doubt whether to make or not to make a management structure chart for your business? A chart is more than just figures and symbols. What they represent matters the most. And here are some reasons that prove why you should consider corporate management structure charts:

To Visually Display Hierarchical Management

A business where everyone is a leader gets chaotic, especially when leaders have different opinions and no one is willing to step down as a follower. At the same time, having all workers as followers is just as bad, considering that no one would be spearheading in accomplishing common goals. A management plan is crucial. And what better way to present the hierarchy in management than to display it using corporate management structure charts? This way, corporate governance is practiced.

To Familiarize the Team and Their Roles

If you need the quickest way to understand and familiarize everyone in a company and their positions in just a look, then simply refer to a corporate management structure chart. Through analyzing the chart, you learn about the team and their roles within minutes. And that is better if it is too time-consuming to interview each team member about their responsibilities. Also, corporate structure charts are helpful for startups to quickly highlight their positions and tasks.

To Show How a Business Forms Its Goals

A clear organizational structure in a company’s management proves how capable a business is in outlining its goals and objectives. Rather than not having any strategic plan towards corporate management, a corporate structure shows how prepared your company and its team as a whole is. So be sure to clearly label your corporate management structure chart from the board directors, officers, down to shareholders.

To Appeal to Investors, Stakeholders, and Clients

What also makes a corporate management structure chart special is how it appeals to investors, clients, or stakeholders. When these people see your chart and analyze its diagram, they can understand how your business works. And it even attracts them the most if the chart outlines how your business generates profits. Once you fully keep them interested, these people would be obliged to trust your company and work with you in long term.

The Nine Types of Corporate Organizational Structure

Indeed, a company’s corporate structure is crucial for success. But did you know that there are many types of corporate organizational structures you can apply? So for your next corporate management structure chart, here are nine types of organizational structures you may choose from:

Functional Organizational Structure: Probably the most typical option among organizational structures is the functional organizational structure. In this corporate structure, you are compartmentalizing an organization according to job functions. For example, you group employees under the marketing group, another for the accounting group, and perhaps a new department for customer support. You can base on job descriptions to easily organize the team.Product-Based Divisional Structure: When every department of a corporate structure consists of multiple functional structures, such as smaller divisions, then you already push through with product-based divisional structure. This type is when every division in a company has its own product line. An example is when one department has its own sales team, technical team, and other divisions.Market-Based Divisional Structure: A corporate structure can also be divided according to their markets, customers, and audience types. Maybe each department in an organization has a different set of clients to cater with. The key in market-based divisional structure is to conduct audience analysis per division so that you would be sure as to what client type every department in a company is for. Also, market demands can be fickle so analyze your audience regularly.Geographical Divisional Structure: From the name itself, you can already guess that a geographical divisional structure is categorizing departments according to geography or location. One business can have many branches so you divide them in your corporate structure according to regions, districts, or any destination. And the geographical organizational structure is often used for businesses that should be nearby their sources of clients, supplies, and other necessities.Process-Based Structure: Organizational structures that are presented from the start until the end of various processes are referred to as process-based structures. Examples include the process of research and development and order fulfillment. In this type, you won’t only focus on stating what every employee does. You present how each employee’s tasks interact with each other. You will eventually understand in the diagram as to how processes work from end to end, just like the processes displayed in a Gantt chart.Matrix Structure: A high end organizational structure is the matrix structure. In this case, the hierarchical or conventional model is no longer used. Matrix organizational structures may even cover more than one of the types of corporate structures such as using both product-based and functional structures. Although this uses a complex organizational chart to present data, what matters the most is you clearly outline what needs to be presented so no further questions get asked.Circular Structure: The circular structure is presented in a circular organizational chart. But don’t let its appearance confuse you. It is still related to hierarchy wherein the inner circles refer to the upper-level employees while the outer circles for the lower-level employees.Flat Structure: The staple organizational structures usually look like a pyramid to point out the hierarchy of departments. Meanwhile, a flat organizational structure is preferred when you need to set limits on the different management levels. This is a good paradigm to prove that anyone can be as close to lead the business and that even the employees at the lower level can still communicate with the upper-level employees. Hence, no strict boundaries between every member of a team is presented.Network Structure: When your company deals with more than one businesses to share resources, consider a network organizational structure. A company under lots of partnership agreements also has a lot of different management, functions, and geographies. An example is when your business works with staffing services, freelancers, and other industries.

The Three Parts of a Corporate Structure

There are three building blocks of a corporate structure. These are the board of directors, corporate officers, and shareholders. But who exactly are they? In this section, learn about the three main parts of a corporate structure, aka what completes your corporate management organizational structure chart.

Board of Directors

The heads of an organization are categorized under the board of directors. And they work to report to shareholders, ensure business plans are going exactly as planned, monitor if laws are regulated, set the business goals and budget, and even hold regular meetings. And these board directors mostly consist of the chairperson (the highest part of the business pyramid), the inside directors (the ones usually in chart of budgeting), and the outside directors (the ones assisting the inside directors).

Corporate Officers

Also a crucial part of the corporate structure is the corporate officer. These officers are appointed by the board of directors yet they still handle upper management tasks. And corporate officers should always watch out for the organization’s interests. Also, there are four categories of these officers which are the chief executive officer (CEO) or president, chief operations officer (COO) or vice president, chief financial officer (CFO) or treasurer, and the secretary.

Shareholders

The proprietors or shareholders basically the owners of a company. However, you don’t expect them to be in the business every day. Also, it is possible for an enterprise to be own by various shareholders so they get shares each, particularly stock shares. Nonetheless, the shareholders are critical in the corporate structure to create business decisions. They are also in charge of disposing assets, considering a business partnership agreement, changing bylaws, and electing the board of directors.

How to Make a Corporate Management Structure Chart

Creating a corporate management structure chart is not that difficult, especially when you already went through an enlightened journey from the corporate management structure chart’s definition, importance, types of organizational structures, to the parts of a corporate structure. So for the main event, here are steps in formulating the corporate management structure chart itself:

Step 1: Study Your Organization

You won’t be able to label and categorize the hierarchy or organizational structure of your company without familiarizing your company as a whole. So you have to undergo industry analysis first. This is the time to review the basic documents and other references that help you set the corporate management structure. Rest assured, making the corporate structure chart comes off easy when your knowledge is refreshed with what to input there.

Step 2: Leverage a Sample Chart Template

Free editable, printable, and downloadable corporate management structure chart templates are waiting for you above this article. So be sure to use a sample template of your choice so you never need to create these charts out of nothing. Premade templates make it easier for you to complete your chart. Also, you may optimize loads of other related samples such as an organogram template, timeline chart template, detailed organizational chart template, and many more.

Step 3: List Down Corporate Structure’s Building Blocks

Can you recall the three parts of a corporate structure, as discussed earlier? Besides naming the lower-level employees and customers in your corporate organizational structure, be sure to incorporate the board of directors, corporate officers, and shareholders as well. Those three are the main building blocks of the company management structure anyway. In labeling the chart, you simply list each of their name, job position/task, and department.

Step 4: Use the Proper Type of Organizational Structure

Most importantly, identify the type of organizational structure that works appropriately for your corporate management structure chart. Whether you use the functional structure, process-based structure, product-based structure, matrix structure, or any other example, achieve the right set of data to input in your chosen type. And you can also insert more elements to your chart such as drawings, legends, and additional information.

Step 5: Focus on Presenting Data Easily, Briefly, and Visually

The most important step is to ensure your chart properly presents the data intended to be displayed. Also, take note on how charts are more focused on visual details so there is no need to write in long complete sentences while labeling the shapes and figures inside. You mostly write names and roles only in a corporate structure. So keep your chart concise and easy to read until it creates a smooth flow like a visual business report.


FAQs

What are the three main things to achieve in an organizational structure?

Organizational structures should at least identify the chain of command, span of control, and centralization.

Can one person fill all the roles in a corporate structure?

Yes, there are states that accept one person to handle a variety of roles in a corporate structure. But you need to be realistic that having more than one role in a company structure, especially for a big company, is very challenging. Also, companies with lots of shareholders would likely need more than one board of director.

What are the standard business types?

The common business types are sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, corporation, and S-corporation.

They say that deciding your company’s corporate management structure is like buying a new car or considering a house purchase agreement. It is a big investment that you would not want to jeopardize; otherwise, you would lose it. Just like a house and a car, you would need the corporate structure to be properly built and well-maintained. So be sure to start strong with your business management structure using sample corporate management structure chart templates as your reference. Download a template now!