Page 356 - Business Principles and Management

Chapter 13 • Planning and Organizing

FIGURE 13-9 A line organization establishes direct lines of authority
and responsibility from top to bottom.

President

Production Sales
Manager Manager Controller

Assistant
Sales Manager

Branch A Branch B
Manager Manager

Sales Sales
Representatives Representatives

in all of their areas of responsibility. In the line-and-staff organization, managers
have direct control over the units and employees they supervise but have access
to staff specialists for assistance. Specifically, the line-and-staff organization adds
staff specialists to a line organization. It is designed to solve the problem of com-
plexity and still retain the advantages of direct and definite lines of authority.
Staff specialists give advice and assistance to line personnel. Staff personnel have
no authority over line personnel; that is, staff personnel cannot require anyone in
the line organization to perform any task. They are there to help with specialized
jobs. Thus, line personnel are still responsible to only one supervisor.
The line-and-staff organization in Figure 13-10 (see p. 344) is like the line
organization in Figure 13-9 except for the addition of the advertising specialist
and the marketing research specialist. Their responsibility is to give specialized
advice and assistance to the sales organization of the business. This relationship
is indicated in the organization chart by broken lines. Other examples of staff
positions in some organizations are legal, information management, strategic
planning, and human resources specialists.

MATRIX ORGANIZATION
A newer, more flexible structure is the matrix organization, sometimes called a
project organization. A matrix organization organizes employees into temporary
work teams to complete specific projects. Employees report to a project man-
ager with authority and responsibility for the project. When a new project must
be done, employees with the needed skills are assigned to work on the project
team. They work for that manager until the project is finished. Then they are
assigned to a new project and another project manager. Work assignments and
relationships in a matrix organization are clear but temporary.
In the matrix organization, there is no permanent organizational structure in
which an employee continues to report to the same manager and works in only

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