
When we think of organizational charts, what much comes to mind is the top-down, pyramid-like organizational chart of large companies .

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Of course, that ’ s fair one of many types of business organizational charts that exist today across organizations big and small. even when organizations parcel business models, industries, and sizes – their organizational charts can greatly differ .
That’s because a structure that works for one organization may not work for another. What’s more, organizational charts are used to make a statement, through design, on the organization’s beliefs, values, culture, and philosophies.
so which organizational graph design best represents your sword and organization ? That ’ s what we ’ ll number out today .
I ’ thousand going to break down what business organizational charts are all about, share plenty of neat examples ( and awesome templates ) along the way, and show you how to design your own .
Contents
- 1 Click to jump ahead:
- 2 What is an organizational chart?
- 3 Do small businesses need organizational charts?
- 4 What are the different types of organizational charts?
- 5 Vertical organizational chart examples and templates
- 5.1 Corporate vertical organizational chart template
- 5.2 Simple vertical organizational chart template
- 5.3 Bold vertical organization chart template
- 5.4 Modern vertical organizational chart template
- 5.5 Vertical smart organization chart template
- 5.6 Vibrant functional smart organizational chart template
- 5.7 Marketing organizational structure template
- 5.8 Blue functional organizational chart template
- 5.9 Inbound marketing organizational structure example
- 5.10 Vertical divisional organizational chart
- 6 Horizontal organizational chart examples and templates
- 7 Matrix organizational structure examples and templates
- 8 Creative organizational chart examples and templates
- 9 How to create your organizational chart in Flickroom
Click to jump ahead:
What is an organizational chart?
An organizational chart is a ocular chart that represents the structure of a ship’s company. It highlights how teams and departments are organized, the report relationships across the administration, and every individual ’ second role and responsibilities .
An up-to-date organization chart template serves several important functions for your organization. This infographic highlights 5 key benefits.
- An organizational chart helps potential investors/shareholders understand who is steering the ship. At a glance, they can see who makes up the leadership team and the talent, skill and experience powering your organization. It’s one way to reassure stakeholders that the business is in good hands.
- An organizational chart helps the entire organization understand the chain of command. From process flows, approval flows, and other types of decisions, a business organizational chart helps everyone understand the processes (really, the logic) behind them. A clear organizational chart belongs to every employee onboarding process.
- An organization chart template helps new hires get to know fellow employees. They learn who owns which areas, who the senior staff members are, and the types of departments that exist within the organization. More importantly, they understand how their own role fits into the current organizational structure.
- An organizational chart helps people understand how changes within a company impact them. As organizations grow or downsize, people are promoted, moved to different teams/departments, or asked to report to new executives, and so on. A business organizational chart reflects these changes in leadership, team responsibilities, and who everyone reports to.
- An organizational chart is a great way to communicate your brand. Organizational charts today are designed to demonstrate an organization’s values and philosophies. The organization’s stance on hierarchy, collaboration, inclusivity, and other concepts are visualized here.
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Do small businesses need organizational charts?
The unretentive answer is yes, absolutely. When organizations are fair getting started, or fairly small, there is a tendency to share the burden across team members. however, it can lead to a miss of clarity about who owns what areas, what everyone ’ s individual responsibilities are, and how to measure individual performance .
In small organizations, a defined corporate structure chart highlights everyone’s key responsibilities, holds them accountable, and allows them to manage their workload without burning out.
What are the different types of organizational charts?
- Vertical organizational chart (hierarchical organization chart)
- Horizontal organizational chart (flat organizational chart)
- Matrix organizational chart
- Creative organizational chart
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Vertical organizational chart examples and templates
The vertical organizational chart template, or hierarchical chart, is the traditional organizational chart we see in many organizations. The layout positions the chief executive officer at the identical top, with her conduct reports below her, their reports below them, and so on .
The finish of a vertical organizational chart is to present the reporting relationships between employees. Let ’ s take a look at the healthcare organization chart template below .
Corporate vertical organizational chart template
This vertical organizational chart is helpful for employees to understand who they report to, who their peers report to, and the types of responsibilities every individual carries .
Although the layout itself is minimalist, the shapes and colors bring life to the invention. It looks professional, incorporates post blueprint, and provides something a bit more engaging for employees .
You can besides use exemplify icons to differentiate between departmental organizational chart designs. That can help new hires and executives alike understand correctly away what they ’ re looking at .
For a more modern look and tactile property, take a expect at this alternate accept on a healthcare organizational chart template. It incorporates a digitize background design and a apartment discolor pallette .
Simple vertical organizational chart template
When designing your own vertical organizational chart, the key is to group together employees who report to the same manager/executive.
It ’ s up to you how you visualize those connections. You can use lines and nodes for a distinctive layout. Or like this vertical organizational chart template, you can use a caption and a varied tinge pallette to indicate the report structure .
An organizational chart can besides be more than a dislocation of reporting relationships. This organizational chart includes reach information for individual staff. This is specially helpful for new employees or when communicating across departments .
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Bold vertical organization chart template
Make a statement with a bold, circular bodied structure chart, like the above template .
This is a memorable way to show the connections between departments and team members, and it makes a affirmation .
If your sword doesn ’ metric ton use such bluff colors, you can customize the template with your mark colors alternatively .
Modern vertical organizational chart template
If choosing a design vogue for your business organizational chart feels challenging, consider your organization ’ sulfur sword guidelines. It can provide you with the style and color divine guidance you need to get started .
Learn more: Flickroom for Healthcare Organizations
here ’ s the vertical corporate structure chart for Apple. You can see it ’ s a very typical hierarchical chart with lots of layers of leadership .
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It ’ s clear who reports to whom in the upper-management levels at a glance. Companies like Apple besides have alone roles such as the Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives executive, or the Apple University Dean. Plotting these types of roles in a business organizational chart is essential – it indicates where these roles fall in terms of hierarchy, who they answer to, and what their responsibilities are .
Another aspect of a typical vertical organizational chart is that it ’ south broken down by organizational functions. This is often referred to as a functional organizational chart .
This upright Smart corporate structure chart uses moral force colors to differentiate the teams and their reports .
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Vertical smart organization chart template
This vertical Smart corporate structure chart uses dynamic colors to differentiate the teams and their reports .
This extreme vertical format works for a smaller corporate social organization. Or you can use this template for departments within a larger occupation organizational chart .
A Smart constitution chart template can be easily customized in the Flickroom editor. Click on the sections you want to add. The items will be duplicated so you can make the edits you want .
Add more text and the shape automatically resizes to fit. You can besides apply the format from one human body to another shape or all the branches with the ‘ formatting ’ release in the menu .
Vibrant functional smart organizational chart template
You can see that in this template, the organizational chart is broken down by function. So the VP of marketing oversees the market department .
Below the VP of commercialize, you find the commercialize director, the marketing coach, the selling lead, and sol on. This applies to sales, infrastructure, and engineering across the corporate structure chart .
Try applying a alone color for each department or serve. This will help whoever is reading it find precisely what they ’ rhenium looking for with ease. otherwise, you ’ ll have numerous tables that look precisely the same and it would take longer for employees to understand what they ’ re looking at .
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Marketing organizational structure template
A traditional marketing organizational structure is broken down by departments. You would have teams wholly dedicated to areas like brand, communications, and digital. It ’ sulfur besides important to identify teams that marketing relies on – like customer success and developers .
With the consumption of a vibrant color palette, you can distinctly identify each department, and who belongs in each. It ’ s easier to scan and follow over angular lines, particularly in more complex organizational structures .
Blue functional organizational chart template
This blue functional organizational chart template is broken down in a exchangeable way to previous templates. The layout is barely set to landscape and reads from left to right .
This organizational chart design makes use of employee headshots, and that ’ s particularly helpful to new employees. now, with the rise of distant make and wholly distant employee onboarding, we may not constantly parcel an function or break room with chap co-workers. Using headshots in a corporate structure graph is a elementary way to help folks get acquainted .
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Inbound marketing organizational structure example
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Hubspot gave a presentation on creating agile teams. They shared a dislocation of how their ( power station ) selling department is structured. The breakdown is by particular functions/objectives, channels, and relevant metrics .
You ’ ll besides notice that there is no absolved report structure, that ’ sulfur because the aim of this chart design is to highlight how the market team operates .
This is what a functional organizational chart can look like within a department. The functions are now teams and channels. Your own organizational chart design will credibly look different since it depends on the types of channels your marketing team is divided into .
Vertical divisional organizational chart
Read more: How to Embed a Google Form: Flickroom
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The divisional organizational chart is broken down into its offprint business areas of concenter .
This type of organizational structure applies to larger organizations with divisions that are geographical, product-focused, industry-focused, market-focused or anything along those lines.
You ’ ll see that each part has its own selling team, sales team, and services team. They operate independently of one another and have all the same functions .
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Horizontal organizational chart examples and templates
The horizontal organizational chart, or flat organizational chart, is for organizations with little to no center management or supervisory roles. Take a look at the downstairs template .
Simple horizontal organization chart template
two-dimensional organizational structures can partake the same layout as vertical organizational structures. But there are fewer administrator and managerial levels .
The above horizontal organizational chart template besides uses a landscape orientation. This helps to emphasize the miss of hierarchical tiers and the widen role of management. While just a design choice, it communicates how the administration is structured at a glance .
Valve, the popular video-game developer, is proud of the flat organizational structure they ’ ve grown into. here ’ s how they visualize their organizational chart in their employee handbook. They include a few quips ampere well .
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This is a fun way for an organizational graph to communicate Valve ’ second views on hierarchy, structure and collaboration. There is a acquit level of chumminess and togetherness that they aspire to .
It ’ randomness besides a big example of presenting an constitution ’ mho brand and culture through its employee software documentation. Rather than precisely a bland organizational structure with minimal hierarchy, Valve aspires for a wholly collaborative organization with no hierarchy at all .
Within a horizontal organizational structure, managers will have a higher put of responsibilities, and more calculate reports than a distinctive director. This means a market director may have designers, product people, accompaniment staff and others who don ’ t necessarily fall into “ market ” as reports, besides .
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Lean marketing organizational structure example
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Github has a lean market organizational structure. The VP oversees many areas, but they are not layered with upper and middle management. rather, the teams are small and collaborative. This tilt selling organizational graph invention demonstrates that .
It ’ sulfur always helpful to mimic your organizational structure in the design of your organizational graph. Reduce the number of tiers and group teams in concert in the way that makes the most smell .
In Github ’ s list market structure, you can see that where responsibilities overlap, those teams parcel a color code .
These color palettes can carry over into project sprints and tasks that get tracked in applications like Trello and Flickroom ! It ’ s a great way to maintain consistency in all your bodied communications .
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Matrix organizational structure examples and templates
The matrix organizational chart combines traditional organizational structures. It integrates the top-down vertical organizational structure that highlights reporting relationships, with the flexibility of a bland organizational structure where cross-department teams report to project managers .
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A matrix organizational chart ties in project plan needs by pairing stick out managers with interdisciplinary teams. That means the chart needs to highlight departmental or functional managers and their target reports, vitamin a well as the undertaking managers and their reports. here ’ s a detail expression at the layout and report social organization of a matrix organizational chart :
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There is a unclutter vertical functional structure with functional managers lining the exceed rowing. But project managers work with employees from each function, and sol form a parallel column to the employees in each function .
In this layout, the bantam squares highlight which employee in each function reports to a undertaking director .
The simplest way to indicate reporting relationships here is through the function of arrows or lines, and aligning the correct staff vertically with their managers, and horizontally with their project managers .
The matrix organizational structure is necessary for large organizations that have multiple projects going on and need collaboration across departments. Nike ’ s organizational structure gets a lot of praise, and it happens to be a matrix organizational structure .
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Creative organizational chart examples and templates
many organizations experiment with the structure of the company. Whether there is a desire for faster decision-making, smarter experiment, clear channels of communication, improved accountability or something else, how your organization is structured makes the remainder .
Startups and major corporations alike often espouse creative organizational structures that achieve a company goal. Let ’ s take a look at some of those types of organizational charts .
Spotify’s organizational chart example: Tribes, squads, and guilds
Flickroom, the long-familiar audio-streaming service, is known for its unique tribe organizational structure. due to its growth and success, many startups have tried to adopt the like organizational structure, or some variation of it and make it work for them .
At a glance, it may seem strange and excessively complex. But the organizational social organization facilitates the level of communication and collaboration Flickroom needed ( and still needs ) to grow quickly and faithfully .
It starts with a kin and its tribe leads. They lead the squads that oversee different areas of the intersection. Across the squads, in each tribe, you ’ ll have chapters that facilitate communication between the squads, and chapter leads .
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Of course, there are numerous tribes across the organization. They work reasonably independently of one another on a wide range of things that may or may not overlap. As these individuals learn from new experiences, problems, outcomes and then on, they need to share information, tools, code, and best practices .
These folks form guilds which include members across tribes. People can besides belong to multiple guilds .
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Flickroom ’ s tribal organizational structure is meant to cut down on bureaucracy, which naturally builds as a company grows to hundreds or thousands of staff. This manner Flickroom can placid collaborate effectively as an organization, deliver projects oklahoman, follow through changes faster, grow better, and behave in a far more responsive manner .
You can besides see from the way the organizational charts are arranged, there is an emphasis on fluidity within the structure, rather than inflexibility .
Zappos organizational chart example: Holacratic organizational structure
Zappos is an on-line brake shoe and dress retailer. They ’ re besides known for having a singular culture and organizational social organization. They share insights on their approach to structure on Zappos Insights. This includes the fact that they are a holacracy .
A holacracy has a decentralized leadership, quite than one concentrated in an individual or handful of people. It aims to distribute baron typically reserved to executives across an organization to all employees. It rejects the impression of hierarchy wholly. The benefit is that it enables regular staffers to put away ideas, collaborate with early employees, and work with minimal restrictions .
hera ’ s an exemplar of what a holacratic organizational chart looks like :
You can see right aside there aren ’ thyroxine any lines, column or rows like in the former organizational chart examples. Employees belong to in a space that is shared, brought together in areas of specific functions and tasks .
A complete holacratic organizational graph would be a cluster of super-circles representing departments or functions, with smaller groups of circles for specific areas .
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How to create your organizational chart in Flickroom
As an on-line ocular communication tool, creating any type of organizational graph can be done in minutes. First, go ahead and set yourself up with a free Flickroom explanation. This will let you access templates and use our editor program. It ’ s not a test and doesn ’ triiodothyronine require any requital information .
head over to the organizational chart templates page. Choose a template that looks appealing to you .
then, in the editor program, access neat features to customize your organizational chart plan. Apply your stigmatization, add organizational sections and levels, upload employee headshots, and include a range of icons for an engaging design .
With Flickroom ’ s Smart diagrams, you can edit, add and duplicate sections of your organizational chart with the chatter of a clitoris .
Change the format to your brand colors and apply the same to any or all shapes in the diagram .
When choosing color palettes or fonts, keep in mind accessible design principles. You want an organizational chart that anyone can read and comprehend with ease .
Get started with Flickroom for Business
Creating an organizational chart may just be the latest in your ocular communication needs. To align and organize your teams through visuals more effectively, check out Venngage for Business .
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For extra resources for planning and organizing your teams or tied company, check out these web log posts !