MERITS AND DEMERITS OF LINE AND STAFF ORGANIZATION

In line and staff organisation, line authority moves down in the same manner as in the line organisation, but in addition, specialists (known as ‘staff’) are attached to line managers to advise them on important matters.

Those specialists stand ready to advise and assist line men as and when required, which enable the line officials to carry out their activities better. The staff officers do not have any power of command in the organisation as they are employed only to provide advice to the line officers. Staff means a supporting function intended to help the line managers.

In most organisations, the use of staff can be traced to the need for helping handling details, gathering data for decisions and offering advice on specific managerial problems. Staff investigates, supplies information and makes recommendations to managers who take decisions

Merits of line and staff organisation:

  1. Line managers get the benefit of specialised knowledge of staff specialists.
  2. Many problems that are ignored or poorly handled in line organisation can be properly resolved in the line and staff organisation with the help of staff specialists.
  3. Staff specialists relieve the line managers from the botheration of concentrating on the specialised functions like budgeting selection and training, public relations, etc.
  4. Staff specialists help the line executives in taking better decisions by providing them with adequate information of the right type at the right moment and render expert advice.
  5. Line and staff organisation is more flexible as compared to the line organisation. General staff can be employed to help line managers at the various levels.

Demerits of line and staff organisation:

  1. Staff officers encroach upon the line authority. They interfere in the work of line managers and try to tell them how to do their work.
  2. Staff specialists may be professionals and may not be well acquainted with the practical problems of the enterprise.
  3. Since staff men are not directly accountable for any result, they are generally overzealous and recommend a course of action which is not practical.
  4. Staff men generally fail to view the whole organisation objectively as they are specialists in particular areas.
  5. Staff men have the tendency to take credit for the decisions which prove successful and lay the blame on line men in case the decisions do not prove successful.
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