Creating an Org Chart in Org Explorer without having to manually update every personnel change

Question

I would like more information about using Org. Explorer to create an org chart for our school district. Is the chart Role based or person-based? If a principal changes, do we have to update everyone in their organization with the new principal, or does that part of the org chart update automatically based on the role. [Moderator note: personal info removed]

Answer 1

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Hi Mary Hampton

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum and sharing your concern.

I understand why minimizing manual updates is important when maintaining an org chart, especially in a school district where leadership changes can occur.

Microsoft Viva Org Explorer is person‑based and manager‑driven, not role‑based. It visualizes reporting relationships using the Manager attribute stored in Microsoft Entra ID, rather than linking employees to abstract roles such as “Principal”.

Because of this, Org Explorer does not automatically reassign staff when a role changes. If a principal leaves and a new principal takes over, the org chart will only update after the Manager field for each affected employee is updated in Entra ID.

• For your reference: Introducing Org Explorer

In your example, once the new principal takes over, staff members who previously reported to the former principal will need their manager updated to the new principal for the org chart to reflect the change correctly. After those manager relationships are updated in Entra ID, Org Explorer will reflect the new structure automatically. No separate updates are required within Org Explorer itself.

To reduce manual effort, many organizations rely on HR or IT to maintain accurate manager information in Entra ID, since Org Explorer is fully dependent on that data.

I hope this helps clarify how Org Explorer handles organizational changes.

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Answer 2

Org Explorer helps visualize and explore your organization’s internal structure, including roles and personnel. However, it does not automatically update personnel changes based on roles. If a principal changes, the org chart will not automatically reassign staff to the new principal. You will need to manually update the assignments for the staff to reflect the new principal's role. This means that when a principal like Ted **[Moderator note: personal info removed]**leaves and Ellen [Moderator note: personal info removed] takes over, you will need to assign all of [Moderator note: personal info removed] staff to Ellen [Moderator note: personal info removed] manually, as the org chart is person-based rather than role-based.

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References:

• Introducing Org Explorer