Dotted line management

[MMMdude]

Anyone else have this concept at their work?  Basically it's a fancy way of saying you are more than one person's bitch.  In my job I often have to hear the same speech/directive/constructive criticism 2 or 3 times because of this asinine dotted line management concept.  Lately i have been extremely passive aggressive about this making comments such as "oh, do these instructions differ from what Person X told me an hour ago?"  I could see this "management style" with a new employee but I have been there nearly a decade and by all accounts have done a good job.   I also wonder why my superiors have so much time on their hands to be repeating all these instructions???

[marty998]

Quite common at the upper executive levels I believe. e.g. Head of Finance in a division may report to the Chief Financial Officer of the organisation + the Chief Executive of their division.

Haven't seen it occur at lower levels where "instruction" needs to be given. That strikes me as unproductive as you've outlined below.

[Capsu78]

Also very common in large multinational organizations where you may have a direct line to your "in country" manager and a dotted line to a functional manager.  I found the best policy was to be valuable to them all as you never know who is going to survive the next round of executive musical chairs and I have also been "helped up" at times by having a better relationship with the dotted line than the direct line.