Chapter No 5

Line/ Staff Authority

Empowerment and Decentralization
Line / Staff Concept and Functional Authority
Line Authority
• The relationship in which a superior exercises direct supervision
over a subordinate
• It exists in all organizations as an uninterrupted scale
Staff Relationship
• The function of people in a pure staff capacity is to investigate,
research and give advice to line managers.
• It is advisory in nature
• Scalar Principle
• The clearer the line of authority, the clearer will be responsibility
for DM
• And the more effective will be the Organizational
Communication
• Functional Authority
• The right delegated to an individual or a department to control
specified processes, practices, policies or other matters relating
to activities undertaken by persons in other departments
Decentralization of Authority
Organizational authority is merely the discretion conferred on people
to use their judgment to make decisions and issue instructions
Decentralization
The tendency to disperse decision making authority in an organized
structure. Some decentralization exists in all organizations
Centralization & Decentralization as Tendencies
Centralization
 Authority in one person
 No subordinate managers
 No structured organization
Decentralization
 All authority delegated
 Position eliminated
 No organization
Kinds of Centralization
Centralization of Performance
  Geographic concentration
 Company operating from single location
Departmental Concentration
 Concentration of specialized activities
 Maintenance of a whole plant by a single department
Centralization of Management
 Tendency to restrict delegation of DM