Importance Of Authority And Staff Authority

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ORGANIZATION: ITS IMPORTANCE AND ASPECTS.
There exist at least three aspects to an organization: the chart, authority, and the chain of command – all of which are interconnected with one another. The organizational chart is known as “the usual way of depicting an organization” (Dessler, 2003, p. 139). Oxford Dictionary (2001) states that authority, in its simplest definition, is the “power or right to enforce obedience” (p. 50). Finally, chain of command, in essence, is a series of executive positions in order of authority ("Chain of command", n.d.). In essence, the essay will give details on the importance of line and staff authority, knowing why it’s important that delegation should equal responsibility, and the differences between a mechanistic …show more content…

They are authorized to make orders to subordinates down the chain of command (Dessler, 2003, p. 140). On the other hand, the staff manager is a manager who only has authority on their specific department, meaning, they cannot give orders down the chain of command. There is an exception to this, however, because a staff manager may also have functional authority and it means that they can issue orders down the chain of command within their limitations of authority. All in all, line managers still are the ones who can give orders outside of the specific department. The most common line position is the CEO or Chief Executive Officer whilst the common staff position is the marketing research manager. In the end, in an organization, no matter what the position is, there is a level of responsibility to uphold. This is one of the principles of management given by Henri Fayol in his book, “General and Industrial Management” (Dessler, 2003, p. …show more content…

In an organization, there exist two different types: mechanistic which is structured by close adherence to the chain of command and organic is the opposite of the mechanistic in that “it’s structured for speed, not efficiency” (Dessler, 2003, pp. 169-170). The line of authority makes it clear how divided the mechanistic organization and the organic one are. The line of authority in a mechanistic context is more organized, but on the other hand, the line of authority in an organic structure, it’s less organic; the jobs of those employees would be changed frequently since it is not clear as to what the line of authority

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