Line And Staff Position
Explain the difference between line and staff position. Which type would you prefer and why?
In every business organization there is a structure to how jobs or tasks are delegated throughout the staff. There are numerous ways to structure the allocation of jobs throughout the business. An example of this is Line and staff position, this structure is usually used within larger organizations where line position are the staff that are involved in the selling or producing a product or service such as tellers at a financial institution, whereas staff position are the staff that specialize or have an expertise in a specific area, these staff provide the support to the line staff, for example IT experts would be classified in staff position. There are also advantages and disadvantages with this type of structure, an advantage is there are staff that specialize in specific areas. Disadvantage of staff and line structure is there may be conflict between line and staff employees.
Line positions are occupied by either line personnel or line managers. The line personnel perform the primary activities of the business, for example the selling or producing of goods or a service. The line managers make most of the decisions and work with line personnel to achieve the goals of the company. Although line managers don’t directly make the product or provide the service of the business they still contribute to and are very important in achieving company goals.
Staff position contributes to the business by providing support to the line position staff.
There are staff personnel and staff managers, staff personnel have expertise in a specified area and use this to assist others throughout the organization, Staff managers provide support and advice to staff personnel. An example of staff position is IT staff, these staff are always behind the scenes providing advice and support to the line position staff and ensuring a smooth running of the workplace, although customers of a...
View Full Essay
