Line and Staff Functions

After reading this article you will learn about the line and staff functions in an organization.

Line and staff functions indicate the pattern of distribution of authority in an organization. Simply stated, authority is the right to act. According to Koontz and others (1984), AUTHORITY in an organization is the power in a position to exercise discretion in making decisions affecting others.

In an organization there may be four sources of authority:

1. Legal:

Legal-authority granted by law, e.g. authority of the Director of a department, institution or an organization.

2. Financial:

Financial-authority to handle finance and financial matters, e.g. authority of the Comptroller, Finance Officer etc.

3. Operational:

Operational-limited to the implementation or operation of some specific tasks, e.g. authority of the Project Director, Team Leader etc.

4. Technical:

Technical-authority which generates from expert or specialist knowledge, e.g. authority of the Entomologist, Soil Chemist etc. In an organization, the authority is exercised by the line.

Staff personnel in two different ways:

i. Line Function:

Line function is one in which a superior exercises authority directly over a subordinate. In a Directorate of Agriculture, the Director of Agriculture is the head of the organization. The agricultural officers at the zonal, district, sub-division and block levels are the line personnel.

In general, the line personnel have independent offices through which they function and maintain their separate identity. The advantages of line personnel are that they have technical knowledge and are closer to the operational area.

ii. Staff Function:

Staff function is advisory in nature and is meant to assist the line personnel. They think for the head of the organization/office and give necessary support and advice. In the Directorate of Agriculture, the Additional Directors of Agriculture, Joint Directors of Agriculture at the headquarters and the State levels specialists like Entomologist, Plant Pathologist, Soil Chemist, Statistician etc. are the staff of the Director of Agriculture. Except the State level technical staff, others generally do not have independent office and do not maintain their separate identity. They work for the head of the organization or office.

There may be three categories of staff-technical i.e. those who deal with technical matters; officers i.e., those who deal with general administration, personnel, finance, audit, purchase etc. and office staff i.e., those who exclusively work in the office and assist the above mentioned staff and line personnel.

For effective functioning of a technical department it is necessary for the technical staff to have good expertise and exposure to the field conditions. To ensure coordination, the officers should also have good understanding of the purposes and objectives of the organization.

The size of the staff should be determined on the basis of how big is the organization, how big is the budget, what are its responsibilities and how busy is the chief executive and other line personnel. The size of the staff in an organization should, however, the kept to the optimum level, as superfluous staff may be a financial and administrative liability to it.