Organizational Chart

An organizational chart (often shortened to "org chart") is a diagram that shows how positions, units, and reporting relationships are arranged inside an institution. For political researchers and Model UN delegates, org charts are essential navigational tools: they reveal who has formal authority, which offices answer to which principals, and where decision points sit in a bureaucracy.

Most org charts use boxes for roles or units and lines for reporting relationships. Common structural patterns include:

• Hierarchical — a single chain of command branching downward from a head of agency or secretary-general.
• Matrix — staff report to both a functional manager and a project or country lead, common in UN agencies and consulting firms.
• Flat — few intermediate layers, typical of small NGOs, advocacy shops, and early-stage think tanks.
• Divisional — units grouped by region, portfolio, or product line, as in many foreign ministries organized by geographic bureau.

In practice, researchers consult org charts published by bodies such as the UN Secretariat, the European Commission, the U.S. Department of State, and the OECD to identify the correct office for FOIA-style requests, interview targets, or stakeholder mapping. The UN System Chart, updated periodically by the Department of Global Communications, is a canonical example showing the relationships between principal organs, specialized agencies, funds, and programmes.

Org charts have limits. They capture formal authority but rarely reflect informal influence, advisory networks, or the political weight of specific individuals — often the variables that matter most in policy outcomes. Charts can also lag behind reorganizations and may not show dotted-line or cross-functional links.

For junior analysts, a useful exercise is to redraw a published org chart and annotate it with the names of current postholders, recent vacancies, and known coordination mechanisms. This turns a static diagram into a working map of where decisions actually get made.