Staff and line are names given to different types of functions in organizations. A line function is one that directly advances an organization in its core work. This always includes

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

and

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

, and sometimes

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

. A staff function supports the organization with specialized advisory and support functions. For example,

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms includ ...

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

and the legal department are generally considered to be staff functions. Both terms originated in the military.

Staff functions

A staff function is an alternate function of people in a

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separ ...

that do not partake instantly in an activity as they help the

line functions Staff and line are names given to different types of functions in organizations. A line function is one that directly advances an organization in its core work. This always includes production and sales, and sometimes marketing. A staff function sup ...

to reach their targets. The business world is changing very rapidly and each day new kinds of issues and problems crop up. It requires specialised input to deal with these changing conditions. It requires specialists to be available who can provide appropriate business solutions. This is the benefit of the "staff function". It provides the

line function Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

with advisory and specialist support. Staff functions are added to help line managers in meeting their objectives. The tendency for the scope and role o
effective managers
to increase, sometimes to untenable levels, can be greatly mitigated by an able staff function providing invaluable support to enable a full management role to be expressed within the time and cost bounds of the job. A specialised performance improvement staff function is needed to support the development of performance improvement skills and to help coordinate performance improvement work in the rest of the

organisations An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

. Thus helping a business organisation to work more efficiently and effectively. Staff functions like

can become smaller and actually have a greater impact on the business. A business can usually survive the failure of, or use substitutes for the staff function. Staff functions vary between businesses, but usually include activities like

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

, human resources, and plant maintenance.

Disadvantages

# There is scope of conflict between line and staff functionaries
Decision making
gets delayed or difficult if executives of staff function are more dominant than those of line functions. # There is a large amount of hope and expectancy from the person that has authority as the productivity of the structure is dependent on the person that has high authority.

Advantages

# Staff functions are vastly important due to the need for their careful and eye-for-detail

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

of an alterin
business situation
and vigilant, cautious and wary planning to meet the tasks and challenges. # There is scope of flexibility for staff functions to take more responsibility in the interest of organisation. # Staff specialists can work more effectively for long term performance improvement unhampered by the pressures of day to day problems.

Organizational lifecycle

Organizations begin as line-only, with line managers having direct control over all activities, including administrative ones. Only later, as organizations grow in size, do they add staff positions.

Relative authority

Line units tend to have more employees than staff units. Staff positions have four kinds of authority: "advise authority", offering advice to line managers who may ignore it; "compulsory advice" or "compulsory consultation" in which line managers must consider staff advice, but can choose not to heed it; "concurrent authority," in which a line manager must seek the agreement of a staffer, and "functional authority" in which the staff person has formal authority over his or her specialty and its employees. Common types of functional authority for staff positions include authority over recruiting standards, reimbursement policies and quality standards. Staff workers derive

influence Influence or influencer may refer to: *Social influence, in social psychology, influence in interpersonal relationships ** Minority influence, when the minority affect the behavior or beliefs of the majority *Influencer marketing, through individ ...

from their expertise, from their control of potentially vital information, and from their closer access to

upper management Senior management, executive management, upper management, or a management is generally individuals at the highest level of management of an organization who have the day-to-day tasks of managing that organization—sometimes a company or a cor ...

Conflicts

It is common for line and staff workers to come into conflict. Staff specialists say line workers avoid and ignore them, while line workers say staff workers do not understand the organization's core work, distract them, and get in their way. Sociologist Melville Dalton attributed this to "the conspicuous ambition and individualistic behavior among staff managers," staff's anxiety to justify their existence, and the dependence of staff managers on line managers. Other management theorists have observed that line managers sometimes resent staff advisors who are younger and better-educated than they are. Others attribute the problem to staff managers who do not realize that even though they have been delegated authority in particular areas, their primary role is to serve and support line managers. Management textbooks advise resolving line-staff conflict by explicitly recognizing the mutual dependency of the two, making it clear what the staff role is, de-emphasizing any controlling elements of the staff role, having staff deliberately set out to win the confidence and trust of line workers, and emphasizing the staff role as part of the team.

Downsizing of staff function

In the 1980s many large companies downsized. Typically, staff jobs were disproportionately eliminated. (For example, IBM cut its staff positions from 7,000 to 3,000, and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

cut hundreds of staff positions from its New York headquarters.) Thereafter, more new MBA graduates began aspiring to line positions. Increasingly organizations, especially smaller ones, are moving away from line-staff structures to structures that are more hybrid or matrixed.

References

{{Reflist Organizational structure