Line-staff Organizational Structure: Manage a Company Right
Bigger companies or organizations must have a great structure to manage. With that, a Line-staff organizational structure is an amazing chart that we can use to manage huge and wide employees. For that, we shall now know all the details we need about it. In addition, we will give you an amazing mapping tool that can help you create your map.
- Part 1. What is Line and Staff Organization
- Part 2. How Does Line and Staff Organization Work
- Part 3. Advantages of Line and Staff Organization
- Part 4. Examples of Line and Staff Organization
- Part 5. Best Tool for Line and Staff Organization Chart
- Part 6. FAQs about Line and Staff Organization
Part 1. What is Line and Staff Organization
An organization with a line-staff structure is a great balance of distribution of the work and tasks from the upper management to the lower-level employees. In this type of management, the manager has a huge control in setting the standards for the work. They are likely to set deadlines for the employees to ensure they finish their tasks on time. That means the team at the lower level is responsible for doing all the jobs on time.
Furthermore, the line-staff structure is different from the line structure. Line staff is a lot more flexible. That is possible because the management above is a whole new team that leads the whole organization. The superhead hires supervisors for much faster transactions and managing processes. Overall, the line-staff organizational structure is suggested for medium-sized and large organizations or companies. Indeed, a structure that can make management of commands with ease.
To get to know more information about the staff organization, an organogram is clear to show that.
Part 2. How Does Line and Staff Organization Work
Line and staff organization integrates the direct power of the line with advisory help from the staff. Here, line managers manage routine activities and make major decisions while tasks are always in alignment with the objective of the organization. Staff experts provide professional advice, direction, or services like human resource, legal, or other professional support services that assist and do not command the line's working. This structure allows efficiency by blending power to decide with advice from experts; hence, coordination and problem-solving are easy and effective across departments.
Part 3. Advantages of Line and Staff Organization
Encourage Work Independence
All of the professionals in the company with a line-staff structure are mostly self-sufficient in their work environment. They can manage their task while managing the lower level. More than that, this type of structure possesses people’s expertise that can enhance the operations of the industry. It is like putting a micro efforts to produce micro results.
Put Expertise to Occupational Task
The presence of different expertise in this kind of organization is another advantage of it. That means whenever these experts hire an associate, the skills they have can be taught to the new associates. In connection to the first advantage, it also now leads us to the development and growth of the company.
Focus on Core Responsibility
Since the line-staff structure is composed of a great structure of the management to the employee, that means the workload is decreased due to the smooth dissemination of each task. Everyone has their own set of skills and expertise that they are using in their task or workloads.
Part 4. Examples of Line and Staff Organization
Educational Institutions
Line-staff organizational structure is commonly used in different academic institutions. We all know these educational institutions are composed of different personnel. For that, we say that the Line can be the teaching depart. The one who is doing all the lectures and discussions. More than that, the staff are the non-teaching personnel. These are the people who are tasked with administrative tasks and office work. All of these two expertise are needed for an educational organization to survive.
Corporate Office
Another popular use of the Staff-line structure is the corporate office. In this case, the Line is the manager and head of the company. Mostly they are the ones who are making the commands and tasks. On the other hand, the employees are the staff. These people do the operations and all the work.
Manufacturing Company
The next example is quite similar to the Corporate Office. In the manufacturing industry, there are also a supervisor and Human Resources that run and do all the decision-making stuff. More than that, the operators, quality control, and maintenance experts are the staff that run the whole production.
Part 5. Best Tool for Line and Staff Organization Chart
We are now done reviewing and discussing all of the important matters about the line-staff organizational chart. In this next portion, we shall now give you the most amazing tool you can use to create one of the best charts with ease. Without further ado, here’s MindOnMap for you.
MindOnMap is known to be a great mapping tool nowadays. This tool is super versatile in giving us different features for creating any kind of map or chart. That means this tool is suitable for creating your Line-staff organizational chart without complication. That is for sure because the tool has so many elements and themes that are one click away to use. Even a drag-and-drop process can be done with this tool. Therefore, and instant process of having a Line-staff chart is indeed possible with MindOnMap.
Part 6. FAQs about Line and Staff Organization
What is the difference between a line and a staff position?
As we can see from the different examples above, the difference between a line and a staff position is mostly about expertise. The line positions are most likely at the top of the organization. These are the one who leads the organization or company. On the other hand, staff are doing the work to support the work. They have specialized advisory from the line and give great support functions to the company.
What is another name for line organization?
Line organization is also known as vertical flow. That means, in this kind of structure, the authority will always come above going down. That is why it is also described as the chain of command or scalar principle.
What are the disadvantages of line organization?
Even though the Line-staff organization possesses different advantages, it also has some disadvantages. First, an issue with overlapping authority. Since the structure has so much authority above, the staff might get confused about who to listen to. Second, when an organization uses a line-staff organization, expect a costly salary for both staff and line positions.
Why do others call line organizations a military organization?
Some are also calling Line organization a military organization because of the flow of authority. In both fields, they are persons above that create commands. The persons above shall be respected and followed. That is why Line organization is associated with Military organization.
What is the main focus of the Line-Staff org structure?
The focus of the staff structure is simple. This type of organization purposes to bring transparency to its organization and its people. They need to have vivid illustrations of command flow.
Afsluiting
There is so much more to learn about Staff structure. Good thing this article provides us with all the details we need to know. Fro its definition, examples, purpose, and even a great tool that can help us create an amazing line-staff chart. That’s MindOnMap, and you can actually use it now anytime, anywhere.
