Stovepipe (organisation)

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A stovepipe organisation is one where the structure of the organisation largely or entirely restricts the flow of information within the organisation to up-down through lines of control but inhibits or prevents cross organisational communication. Many traditional, large, organisations (especially governmental or transnational) are, or risk falling into, a stovepipe pattern. Intelligence organisations may deliberately adopt a stovepipe pattern so that a breach or compromise in one area cannot easily spread to others. A famous example of this is Bletchley Park (an allied forces Second World War codebreaking centre where messages encrypted by the Enigma Machine were decrypted) where people working in one hut would not know what the people in any other hut did.

A stovepipe pattern is most likely to develop in organisations that have some or all of the following characteristics:

  • Very hierarchical with sharply defined roles or areas of influence (e.g. regional sales teams)
  • Long reporting lines (i.e. lots of intermediary layers of management) and narrow spans of control (each manager only has a small number of direct reports)
  • Departmental organisation of IT, HR and similar functions, especially where applications and services are procured departmentally rather than via a central procurement section.
  • Culture of suspicion or a dictatorial management style.
  • Multiple sites (or sub sites within a larger site) where staff have little chance to interact on a regular basis with staff from another site.
  • Formed by the merger of two organisations or the acquisition of one organisation by another.

A stovepipe pattern can be very harmful to a commercial organisation as it can lead to duplication of effort in different parts of the organisation and, in extreme cases, unhealthy competition between different branches of the organisation.

Strategies to avoid this can include:

  • Centralisation of IT, HR, Procurement and similar functions.
  • Short reporting lines.
  • Cross functional teams.
  • Fewer sites and/or movement of staff between sites.
  • Culture of openness and supportive management style driven from the senior management.
  • Rapid integration of staff after a merger or acquisition.

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