Informal organisation

How it is used

Use for how people actually connect and get things done beyond their official reporting lines.

Example sentences

1. The informal organisation helped the new manager find colleagues who could solve urgent problems.

   Useful connections exist beyond the relationships shown on the chart.

2. A restructuring changed formal roles but left much of the informal organisation intact.

   Established trust and influence can survive a change in official structure.

Common collocations

• understand the informal organisation
• formal and informal organisation

Related terms

• org chartA diagram that shows how an organisation is structured, with boxes for roles or people and lines showing who reports to whom.
• hierarchyA system in which the people in an organisation are arranged in levels, with each level having more authority than the one below it.

More terms: Organisational Structure

• manager
• team leader
• report to
• direct report
• line manager
• senior management
• middle management
• span of control
• matrix structure
• silo
• chain of command
• headcount