Define the term line and staff organization.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of line and

staff organization?
According to the line and staff organization, specialized and supportive activities are attached to
the line of command by appointing staff supervisors and staff specialists who are attached to the line
authority. The power of command always remains with the line executives and staff supervisors
guide, advice and counsel the line executives. Personal Secretary to the Managing Director is a staff
official.

Advantages of Line and Staff Organization:

1. Relief to line of executives- In a line and staff organization, the advice and counseling which is
provided to the line executives divides the work between the two. The line executive can
concentrate on the execution of plans and they get relieved of dividing their attention to many
areas.
2. Expert advice- The line and staff organization facilitates expert advice to the line executive at
the time of need. The planning and investigation which is related to different matters can be done
by the staff specialist and line officers can concentrate on execution of plans.
3. Benefit of Specialization- Line and staff through division of whole concern into two types of
authority divides the enterprise into parts and functional areas. This way every officer or official
can concentrate in its own area.
4. Better co-ordination- Line and staff organization through specialization is able to provide better
decision making and concentration remains in few hands. This feature helps in bringing coordination in work as every official is concentrating in their own area.
5. Benefits of Research and Development- Through the advice of specialized staff, the line
executives, and the line executives get time to execute plans by taking productive decisions
which are helpful for a concern. This gives a wide scope to the line executive to bring
innovations and go for research work in those areas. This is possible due to the presence of staff
specialists.
6. Training- Due to the presence of staff specialists and their expert advice serves as ground for
training to line officials. Line executives can give due concentration to their decision making.
This in itself is a training ground for them.
7. Balanced decisions- The factor of specialization which is achieved by line staff helps in bringing
co-ordination. This relationship automatically ends up the line official to take better and balanced
decision.
8. Unity of action- Unity of action is a result of unified control. Control and its effectivity take
place when co-ordination is present in the concern. In the line and staff authority all the officials
have got independence to make decisions. This serves as effective control in the whole
enterprise.

Disadvantages of Line and Staff Organization:

1. Lack of understanding- In a line and staff organization, there are two authority flowing at one
time. This results in the confusion between the two. As a result, the workers are not able to
understand as to who is their commanding authority. Hence the problem of understanding can be
a hurdle in effective running.
2. Lack of sound advice- The line official get used to the expertise advice of the staff. At times the
staff specialist also provide wrong decisions which the line executive have to consider. This can
affect the efficient running of the enterprise.
3. Line and staff conflicts- Line and staff are two authorities which are flowing at the same time.
The factors of designations, status influence sentiments which are related to their relation, can
pose a distress on the minds of the employees. This leads to minimizing of co-ordination which
hampers a concerns working.
4. Costly- In line and staff concern, the concerns have to maintain the high remuneration of staff
specialist. This proves to be costly for a concern with limited finance.
5. Assumption of authority- The power of concern is with the line official but the staff dislikes it
as they are the one more in mental work.
6. Staff steals the show- In a line and staff concern, the higher returns are considered to be a
product of staff advice and counseling. The line officials feel dissatisfied and a feeling of distress
enters a concern. The satisfaction of line officials is very important for effective results.

Explain wide span and narrow span of management along with its advantages and disadvantages.

Figure: Narrow Span and Wide Span of Control

A department may have several homogenous sections of managers, junior managers, and
employees. This leads us to the questions of how many employees should work under a manager,
how many managers should work under a senior manager, then a division head, etc.

The term span of control indicates the number of employees or managers who work under one
head. Span of control may be narrow or wide as seen in Figure. When a very few people report to a
head and a chain is made that way upward, then it is called narrow span. Thus in a narrow span, a
department may have three or four sections, under each section head, there could be another two or
three sub section and under each sub section there could be nine or ten employees. In a wide span
there may be 20, 30, or more subordinates under one head.

Narrow Span
Advantages

Close supervision
Close control
Fast communication between
subordinates and superiors

Disadvantages

Superiors tend to get too involved in

subordinates work
Many levels of management
High costs due to many levels
Excessive distance between lowest
level and top level

Wide Span
Advantages

Superiors are forced to delegate

Clear policies must be made
Subordinates must be carefully
selected

Disadvantages

Tendency of overloaded superiors to

become decision bottleneck
Danger of superiors loss of control
Requires exceptional quality of
managers

What do you mean by Coordination? What are the differences between external and internal
coordination? Discuss.
Co-ordination is the unification, integration, synchronization of the efforts of group members so
as to provide unity of action in the pursuit of common goals. It is a hidden force which binds all the
other functions of management.
Management seeks to achieve co-ordination through its basic functions of planning, organizing,
staffing, directing and controlling.

Coordination can be categorized as Internal Coordination and External Coordination

Internal Coordination:
Coordination within an organization is typically known as Internal coordination. It involves
coordination among different individuals, groups, units and departments of an organization. It also
refers to the integration of financial, material and human resources available with an organization for
organizational purposes.
External Coordination:
Coordination between an organization and its external environment is called External Coordination.
It typically involves coordination with suppliers, customers, trade unions, competitors, shareholders
banks, government agencies and all other who interact with the government from outside.

Effective internal and external coordination is an essential prerequisite for the smooth and
successful functioning of organizations. Depending on the level of management, coordination may
also be classified as vertical, horizontal, and diagonal coordination.
1. Vertical Coordination means the coordination of activities carried out at different levels of the
management.
2. Horizontal Coordination is the coordination across functional departments such as marketing
department, purchase department, finance department, HR department, etc.
3. Diagonal Coordination means the coordination of activities performed at different levels and
different departments of the organization.

State the principles of co-ordination. Discuss the steps to achieve effective co-ordination in an
organization.