Functional organizations are known to put people of particular specialization into a team, and it is known to project managers that they have little to no power over the resources of a particular function.

In China, it is quite common to find functional managers who delude themselves of having absolute power over something. And in a functional org setting, it is not hard to find Chinese managers either:

• Abusing his/her power
• Corrupting/taking bribes from vendors
• Making really harsh rules for the team
• Do not treat fellow team members as people
• Do not work well with peers

Not everyone is a team player, particularly in China. With China’s one-child policy for most people, many children do not know how to “share” since little. When they grow up, their ego is often bigger than others’ as well. Selfishness and thinking of only own welfare are widely seen.

Having such kind as a functional manager in the org is a disaster. Do you spot one in your org?