Abbott Laboratories - Management Structure

Management Structure

At Abbott, there is a traditional bureaucratic hierarchy with Miles D. White as the Chief Executive Officer, who oversees the Executive Vice Presidents of every internal division (Scussa). The company recently implemented a new management structure to provide leadership focus in the three product divisions, clearly defining the responsibilities of each executive vice presidents. For example, Jeffrey M. Leiden has been appointed executive vice president of pharmaceuticals and reports to Mr. White (Scussa).

Within each division headed by the executive vice presidents, there are Senior Vice Presidents who are responsible for all departments that compose the division. Directors of the employees within the departments report to the Senior Vice Presidents and oversee the Managers (Human Resources). This type of company division is called a matrix structure, which incorporates both divisional and departmental separation within the headquarters. Furthermore, this type of hierarchy within the divisions allows for a hierarchical control over each employee, with entry level employees who are constantly reporting to a higher ranked employee.

Abbott also uses job rotation, the lateral movement of employees within their level of hierarchy, to keep employees motivated and diversify their work. This practice of job rotation is very characteristic of a bureaucratic system, where managers switch individual employee’s projects to minimize monotony.