Line management

{{Short description|Management of directly involved employees}}

{{More citations needed|date=December 2019}}

Line management refers to the management of employees who are directly involved in the production or delivery of products, goods and/or services. As the interface between an organisation and its front-line workforce, line management represents the lowest level of management within an organisational hierarchy (as distinct from top/executive/senior management and middle management).{{Cite book |last=Ferrell |first=O. C. |title=Business |last2=Hirt |first2=Geoffrey A. |last3=Ferrell |first3=Linda |date=2019 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Education |isbn=978-1-259-92945-8 |edition=6e |location=New York, NY}}

A line manager is an employee who directly manages other employees and day-to-day operations while reporting to a higher-ranking manager. In some retail businesses, they may have titles such as head cashier or department supervisor.{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT1KAQAAMAAJ&dq=head+cashier+line+manager&pg=PA236 | title=Cassell's New Popular Educator: A Cyclopaedia of Knowledge and General Information | date=1920 }}{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rim2QvQPa0EC&dq=head+cashier+line+manager&pg=PA70 | title=Classified Index of Decisions of the Regional Directors of the National Labor Relations Board in Representation Proceedings | date=December 1979 }}{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fmk7FA8G_ZkC&dq=head+cashier+line+manager&pg=PA796 | title=Administration of the Labor-management Relations Act by the NLRB: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on National Labor Relations Board of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eighty-seventh Congress, First Session, on General Study into the Procedures of the NLRB and Its Administration of the Labor-management Relations Act of 1947, as Amended | date=1961 }}[https://www.thebalance.com/role-and-challenges-of-a-line-manager-2275752 Role and Challenges of a Line Manager]. F. John Reh, February 4, 2017 Related job titles are supervisor, section leader, foreperson, office manager and team leader. They are charged with directing employees and controlling that the corporate objectives in a specific functional area or line of business are met.

Despite the name, line managers are usually considered as part of the organization's workforce and not part of its management class.