During a meeting, Tyrone, a branch manager for Fishers Credit Union, pointed to the corporate organization chart on the wall. Tyrone remarked that "These people provide advice, recommendations, and research for us, and they are indicated with a dotted line. Leona (our CEO) and the vice presidents of our organization are up here, indicated on the organization chart by a solid line vertical line." _ are indicated on the organization chart by a solid line, and are indicated by a dotted line.

Organizational charts are a tool that helps us to understand a company’s structure and the relationship between the workers, managers, CEO’s and work departments.

There are different types of organizational charts:

Hierarchical- All employees and departments report to only one entity (CEO, owner, manager).

Matrix- Instead of reporting to only one entity, the worker can report to more than one superior. We can find this type of organizational chart in companies that have different departments or business groups.

Flat- This chart does not have middle levels of management, the relationships are direct. It is very frequent to find this type of chart in small organizations.

Usually, these charts are represented by a well-displayed group of symbols that can include lines, dotted lines, and boxes or circles. Each of these symbols has a different meaning:

Solid line- Shows the relationship between a manager or CEO and a group of employees or departments. It represents the reporting path, to whom somebody reports directly.

Dotted line- Represents an employee that has to report back to a superior but indirectly, it is a less formal relationship.

Boxes or circles- They stand for individual employees, working groups/teams or departments.