Staff and line

A staff function is an alternate function of people in a business that do not partake instantly in an activity as they help the line functions to reach their targets.{{Cite web|url = http://www.openlearningworld.com/books/Fundamentals%20of%20MIS/MANAGEMENT%20PROCESS/Relations%20of%20Line%20and%20Staff%20Functions.html|title = Relations of Line and Staff Functions|date = 1999–2011|accessdate = 2015-10-29|website = Open Learning World|publisher = openlearningworld.com}} The business world is changing very rapidly and each day new kinds of issues and problems crop up. It requires specialised input to deal with these changing conditions. It requires specialists to be available who can provide appropriate business solutions. This is the benefit of the "staff function". It provides the line function with advisory and specialist support.

Staff functions are added to help line managers in meeting their objectives. The tendency for the scope and role of [https://www.michaelpage.co.uk/advice/management-advice/development-and-retention/what-makes-effective-manager#:~:text=Effective%20managers%20are%20always%20good,ensure%20that%20they%20perform%20well. effective managers] to increase, sometimes to untenable levels, can be greatly mitigated by an able staff function providing invaluable support to enable a full management role to be expressed within the time and cost bounds of the job.{{Cite web|title = Staff support and Line functions|url = http://leadershipsuccesshandbook.com/staffandlinefunctions.html|website = leadershipsuccesshandbook.com|accessdate = 2015-10-31}}

A specialised performance improvement staff function is needed to support the development of performance improvement skills and to help coordinate performance improvement work in the rest of the organisations.{{cite journal |last1=Adler |first1=Paul S. |last2=Riley |first2=Patricia |last3=Kwon |first3=Seok-Woo |last4=Signer |first4=Jordana |last5=Lee |first5=Ben |last6=Satrasala |first6=Ram |title=Performance Improvement Capability: Keys to Accelerating Performance Improvement in Hospitals |journal=California Management Review |date=January 2003 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=12–33 |doi=10.2307/41166163 |jstor=41166163 |ssrn=979048 |s2cid=150373403 }} Thus helping a business organisation to work more efficiently and effectively. Staff functions like human resources can become smaller and actually have a greater impact on the business.{{cite journal |id={{ProQuest|219123186}} |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=William K |title=The staff function paradox |journal=The Journal for Quality and Participation |location=Cincinnati |volume=16 |issue=3 |date=June 1993 |page=46 }}

A business can usually survive the failure of, or use substitutes for the staff function. Staff functions vary between businesses, but usually include activities like advertising, human resources, environmental health & safety (EHS) positions, and plant maintenance.

1. Conflict can occur when the scopes of work and position roles & responsibilities are not clearly defined and enforced between line and staff functionaries. [https://www.umassd.edu/fycm/decision-making/process/ Decision making] can be delayed or strained if executives of the staff function are misinterpreted or if the balance of structural power is not properly aligned between line functions, staff functions, and organizational goals.{{Cite web|title = Line and Staff Organizations: Need, Importance, Merits and Limitation|url = http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/organisation/line-and-staff-organizations-need-importance-merits-and-limitation/2461|website = Business Management Ideas|date = 7 February 2014|accessdate = 2015-10-31|language = en}}
2. There is a large amount of hope and expectancy from the person that has authority as the productivity of the structure is dependent on the person that has high authority.{{Cite book|title = Construction Project Management: Theory and Practice|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TrHzCAAAQBAJ|publisher = Pearson Education India|date = 2015-02-28|isbn = 9789332542013|first = Kumar Neeraj|last = Jha}}

1. Staff functions are vastly important due to the need for their subject matter expertise, technical advice, and careful eye-for-detailed analysis of an altering [https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/5-negative-business-situations-and-how-to-turn-them-around/ business situations].
2. Staff functions often use careful evidence based advisement and systems planning to meet the assigned tasks and challenges.{{Cite web |title=What are advantages and disadvantages of line and staff management positions? Transitions at Work |url=http://transitions.atwork-network.com/2007/05/07/what-are-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-line-and-staff-management-positions/ |accessdate=2015-10-31}}
3. There is scope of flexibility for staff functions to take more responsibility in the interest of organisation.{{Cite web |date=7 February 2014 |title=Line and Staff Organizations: Need, Importance, Merits and Limitation |url=http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/organisation/line-and-staff-organizations-need-importance-merits-and-limitation/2461 |website=Business Management Ideas |language=en |accessdate=2015-10-31}}
4. Staff specialists can work more effectively for long term performance improvement unhampered by the pressures of day to day problems.{{Cite web |title=What are the advantages of line and staff in an organization? - Homework Help - eNotes.com |url=http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-advantages-line-staff-an-organization-93757 |website=eNotes |accessdate=2015-10-31}}
5. Staff functional support is most advantageous when line and staff roles & responsibilities are clearly defined within the organization structure and all individuals are held accountable.

Organizations begin as line-only, with line managers having direct control over all activities, including administrative ones. Only later, as organizations grow in size, do they add staff positions.{{cite book|last=McDaniel|first=Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl|title=The future of business: the essentials|year=2009|publisher=South-Western Cengage Learning|location=Mason, OH|isbn=978-0324590753|pages=182|edition=4th, student}}

Line units tend to have more employees than staff units.{{cite book|last=Ornstein|first=Fred C. Lunenburg, Allan C.|title=Educational administration: concepts and practices|year=2008|publisher=Wadsworth|location=Belmont, CA|isbn=978-0495115854|pages=[https://archive.org/details/educationaladmin05edlune/page/40 40]|edition=5th|url=https://archive.org/details/educationaladmin05edlune/page/40}}

Staff positions have four kinds of authority: "advise authority", offering advice to line managers who may ignore it; "compulsory advice" or "compulsory consultation" in which line managers must consider staff advice, but can choose not to heed it; "concurrent authority," in which a line manager must seek the agreement of a staffer, and "functional authority" in which the staff person has formal authority over his or her specialty and its employees.{{cite book|last=Agarwal|first=R.D.|title=Organization and management|year=1986|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New Delhi|isbn=0074515063|pages=150|edition=1. repr.}} Common types of functional authority for staff positions include authority over recruiting standards, reimbursement policies and quality standards.{{cite book|last=Handel|first=ed. Michael J.|title=The sociology of organizations classic, contemporary, and critical readings|year=2003|publisher=Sage|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=0761987665|pages=149–152|edition=3. printing.}}

Staff workers derive influence from their expertise, from their control of potentially vital information, and from their closer access to upper management.{{cite book|last=Agarwal|first=R.D.|title=Organization and management|year=1986|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New Delhi|isbn=0074515063|pages=150|edition=1. repr.}}{{cite book|last=Handel|first=ed. Michael J.|title=The sociology of organizations classic, contemporary, and critical readings|year=2003|publisher=Sage|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=0761987665|pages=149–152|edition=3. printing.}}

It is common for line and staff workers to come into conflict.{{cite book|last=McConnell|first=Charles R.|title=The effective health care supervisor|year=2007|publisher=Jones and Bartlett Publishers|location=Sudbury, Mass.|isbn=978-0763739515|pages=51|edition=6th}} Staff specialists say line workers avoid and ignore them, while line workers say staff workers do not understand the organization's core work, distract them, and get in their way. Sociologist Melville Dalton attributed this to "the conspicuous ambition and individualistic behavior among staff managers," staff's anxiety to justify their existence, and the dependence of staff managers on line managers.{{cite journal|last1=Dalton|first1=Melville|title=Conflicts between staff and line managerial officers|journal=American Sociological Review|date=1950|volume=15|issue=3|pages=342–351|doi=10.2307/2087175|jstor=2087175}} Other management theorists have observed that line managers sometimes resent staff advisors who are younger and better-educated than they are. Others attribute the problem to staff managers who do not realize that even though they have been delegated authority in particular areas, their primary role is to serve and support line managers. Management textbooks advise resolving line-staff conflict by explicitly recognizing the mutual dependency of the two, making it clear what the staff role is, de-emphasizing any controlling elements of the staff role, having staff deliberately set out to win the confidence and trust of line workers, and emphasizing the staff role as part of the team.{{cite book|last=Handel|first=ed. Michael J.|title=The sociology of organizations classic, contemporary, and critical readings|year=2003|publisher=Sage|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=0761987665|pages=149–152|edition=3. printing.}}

In the 1980s many large companies downsized. Typically, staff jobs were disproportionately eliminated. (For example, IBM cut its staff positions from 7,000 to 3,000, and CBS cut hundreds of staff positions from its New York headquarters.){{cite book|last=Griffin|first=Ricky W.|title=Management|year=2010|publisher=South-Western Cengage Learning|location=Mason, OH|isbn=978-1439080993|pages=358–9|edition=10th}} Thereafter, more new MBA graduates began aspiring to line positions.{{cite book|last=Weihrich|first=Harold Koontz, Heinz|title=Essentials of management: an international perspective|year=2007|publisher=Tata McGraw-Hill|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-0070620308|pages=182|edition=7th}}

Increasingly organizations, especially smaller ones, are moving away from line-staff structures to structures that are more hybrid or matrixed.{{cite book|last=Griffin|first=Ricky W.|title=Management|year=2010|publisher=South-Western Cengage Learning|location=Mason, OH|isbn=978-1439080993|pages=358|edition=10th}}

• Line officer

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Category:Organizational structure