The traditional org chart is a hierarchical tree: the CEO at the top, functional leaders below, and cascading reporting lines down to individual contributors. This top-down hierarchy chart is the most common format and reflects the legal and managerial accountability structure of most organisations. However, it is not the only model. Matrix org charts show dual-reporting relationships, common in large organisations where employees report to both a functional manager and a project or product manager. Flat org charts reflect organisations with minimal hierarchy, where most employees report directly to senior leadership or operate in largely self-managed teams. Network or circular charts are used in some contexts to show relationships without implying hierarchy.
Org charts serve multiple HR purposes beyond showing who works where. For workforce planning, the org chart reveals structural gaps - roles that are critical but understaffed, spans of control that are too wide or too narrow, and reporting layers that create organisational drag. For succession planning, it shows which senior roles have identified successors and which are single points of failure. For onboarding, it helps new employees understand where they fit in the organisation and who the key stakeholders are in other functions. For organisational design work, it is the baseline from which future-state structures are drawn and evaluated.
Maintaining accurate, up-to-date org charts in organisations of more than 50 people is a perennial challenge. Manual org charts become outdated as soon as someone joins, leaves or changes roles, and are typically no one's primary responsibility. Systems that generate org charts automatically from the HRIS - pulling current reporting relationships from the employee database in real time - are the only sustainable solution at scale. The accuracy of auto-generated org charts depends entirely on the accuracy of the manager field in the HRIS: if employees' reporting lines are not updated when managers change, the org chart is wrong.
Span of control - the number of direct reports a manager has - is one of the key design parameters visible in an org chart. Research suggests optimal spans of control vary by role type: managers of routine, highly similar work can effectively manage 12 to 15 people; managers of knowledge workers doing complex, varied work are typically most effective with six to nine direct reports. Spans that are too wide reduce the quality of management attention per employee; spans that are too narrow create excessive overhead and slow decision-making. Org chart analysis that identifies systematic span-of-control problems is a common starting point for organisational design work.
Key Points: Org Chart
- Types: Hierarchical (most common), matrix (dual reporting), flat (minimal layers), network/circular (non-hierarchical).
- HR uses: Workforce planning, succession planning, onboarding navigation, organisational design and span-of-control analysis.
- Maintenance challenge: Manual org charts become stale immediately; HRIS-generated live charts are the only sustainable solution at scale.
- Span of control: Research suggests 6-9 reports for knowledge work managers; 12-15 for routine work supervisors - visible from org chart analysis.
- Accuracy dependency: Auto-generated org charts are only as accurate as the manager field in the HRIS - data hygiene is essential.
How Org Chart Works in Treegarden
Org Chart in Treegarden
Treegarden generates live org charts automatically from the employee database, reflecting current reporting relationships in real time. As employees join, change managers or leave, the org chart updates without manual intervention. HR teams and managers can navigate the full organisational hierarchy, view team structures by department or location, and export org chart views for presentations or planning sessions. Span-of-control analytics flag managers outside recommended ranges.
Related HR Glossary Terms
Frequently Asked Questions About Org Chart
Dedicated org chart tools include Lucidchart, OrgWeaver, Pingboard and ChartHop. Microsoft Visio and PowerPoint are widely used for manual org charts. The most efficient approach for organisations of any significant size is to use an HRIS that generates org charts automatically from the employee database - eliminating the need for separate software and the maintenance burden of manual updates. Any diagram generated outside the HRIS will immediately begin to become stale as people join, leave and change roles.
Standard org charts show formal reporting relationships only. Informal influence networks, collaboration relationships and cross-functional project teams are not captured. Organisational network analysis (ONA) is a separate discipline that maps informal relationships - typically through employee surveys asking who they turn to for information, advice or expertise - to reveal the hidden influence structure alongside the formal hierarchy. ONA results are sometimes overlaid on standard org charts to show where informal influence matches or contradicts formal authority.
The right level of detail depends on the purpose. An executive overview might show only leadership layers down to Director or VP. A departmental view for operational management shows all individual contributors. A recruitment planning view might show open positions as dotted boxes. The principle is to show enough to answer the specific question being asked without overwhelming the viewer with unnecessary detail. Most modern org chart tools allow users to expand or collapse layers interactively, so the same underlying structure can serve both high-level and detailed views.