Authority

Meaning of Authority

Authority is the right to act and the power to make decisions, issue orders and allocate all the organizational resources to achieve organizational desired goals and outcomes. A person with authority influences the activity or behavior of another individual or group. As the organization grows in size, many people are involved in its activities. They need the authority to do the work.

Authority resides in positions rather than in people. Thus, the job of a marketing manager has authority over that department. The marketing manager loses that authority when he or she changes or quits that job. In many organizations, managerial authority is contained in documents like organizational manuals, job descriptions and role analysis. In some organizations, no written descriptions of authority are available. In such organizations, tradition and custom are guides to the authority that the position will have in the executive system. There are three essential conditions for effective and proper exercise of authority which are listed below:

1. The authority is based on the organizational position and anyone in the same position has the same authority.

2. The authority so assigned has to be accepted by his or her subordinates in the organization. Subordinates comply because they believe that managers have a legitimate right to issue orders.

3. The authority flows from top to down through the vertical hierarchy. More formal authority is vested at the top positions than at lower position in the organization.

Authority relationships are the basis for organizational structure. Authority can be classified into two categories. These are:

1. Line Authority
2. Staff Authority

1. Line Authority:

This authority refers to the direct authority, which a superior exercises over his or her subordinates. The exercise of this authority is always downward, that is from superior to subordinate. When a manager has a line authority, he or she is called "line manager". Line managers are authorized to issue orders to subordinates down the chain of command.

Based on the concept of line authority, line structures are designed. This form of organization is simple. It is also known as a scalar or military type of structure. The essence of scalar principle is that in any organization, there must be a series of superior-subordinate relationships from the top to every position in the structure. In this form of organization, each manager is given complete charge of the work assigned to him or her. He or she reports only to his or her superior. He or she issues instructions and orders only to those subordinates who directly report to him or her. In the line structure, authority flows from the top most executive to subordinate at the lowest level in a more or less straight line. This gives it the name "line organization". A typical line authority is shown in figure below:

Figure: Line Authority

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The advantages and disadvantages of line authority are given below:

Advantages:

1. It is very simple to establish and can be easily understood by employees. The responsibility, authority and accountability are all clear-cut, easily assignable and traceable. All individuals know to whom they are responsible.

2. There is unity of command and each executive has full control over his subordinates.

3. It facilitates prompt decisions and speedy action if possible. Each individual can hold accountable for results and he can not shift his responsibility to others.

4. Due to small structure size, discipline among all can be maintained easily and effective control can be easily exercised.

5. The structure can be made flexible to suit changing conditions in the environment.

6. Communication is fast, easy and feedback also can be acted upon faster. As usually, the companies with the line type of organization are small in size, people get to know each other better and tend to feel close to each other.

Disadvantages:

1. Centralization of authority at the top level can lead to autocratic behavior. Dictators may emerge. It may result in autocratic control.

2. There is a lack of specialization. There is no provision for specialists which is essential for growth and optimization.

3. Key executives are overloaded with administrative work. As the firm grows larger and the executives become overloaded or overburdened with many duties, purely line typeof organization become less effective.

4. Generally, there is one-way communication from top to bottom. As a result, proper feedback can not be received about the implementation of various plan and decisions from subordinates which are at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy.

5. There is a scope of favoritism and nepotism. It is likely to encourage nepotism (favoritism is showed on the basis of personal and family relationships, like in business and politics).

2. Staff Authority:

This type of authority involves giving advice and counsel to line managers to carry out their operations. A manager with staff authority is called "staff manager". Staff managers authority is restricted to their functional area. The flow of this authority may be in any direction depending upon the need of such an advice. Examples of staff specialists include a personnel manager, a quality control technician, an accountant, or an assistant to the general manager.

In bigger and complex organizations, the only expertise of line managers may not be enough to fulfill the requirements of the job. Staff assistance is required for efficiency and economy of operations. Hence, some staff specialists are employed to assist the line managers. Thus, a simple line authority is converted into a line-staff organization. An example of line-staff organization is shown in figure below:

Figure: Line-Staff Authority

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A combined line-staff form of organization structure is quite popular. It has evolved as the best all-round type of structure. The most striking feature of this form of organization is that in it each person reports to one and only one superior, yet receives specialized services and help from various staff experts. These experts are available for services. But the line managers need not accept their services or advice. The staff managers do not have the authority to give orders directly to line managers.

The merits and demerits of line-staff authority are given below:

Merits:

1. Staff specialists provide adequate information and expert advice. As a result, line executive can take better decisions.

2. In such organization, staff specialists do not disturb the scalar chain of authority and unity of command. This facilitates discipline and stability in the organization.

3. Staff specialists provide required information to line executives by carrying out various needed investigation. Therefore, the burden of line executives is reduced. This provides balance to line member in terms of workload.

4. Through this structuring principle, undivided responsibility and authority becomes possible. At the same time, this structure permits specialization of staff and subordinates. Line managers can improve their performance with expert advice from staff specialists. This provides growth and advancement opportunities to line members.

5. Line-staff organization ensures greater flexibility as addition and removal of new specialized activities makes no difference to the existing line procedure.

Demerits:

1. In this type of organization, a conflict between the line and staff executives can be observed and noticed as the line managers feel that staff specialists do not always give the proper type of advice and suggestion and staff officials generally complain that their type of advice and suggestion is not properly attended to.

2. In this type of organization, co-ordination problem is seen as it is difficult to define the clear authority relationships between line and staff officials.

3. Line members may heavily dependent on staff members for decision-making purpose which may lead to loss of initiative by line members.

4. Staff members are not accountable for the results. Therefore, they may not take their tasks seriously. They may lack practical knowledge. This can encourage carelessness in giving advice.

5. This type of organization demands a large number of skilled human resources in comparison to the line organization as a result, this system becomes quite expensive.

Reference

(Shrestha, P. (2014). Principles of Management, Kathmandu: Samjhana Publication Pvt. Ltd.)