What are the different Forms of Organizational Structure?

“Organization is a system of co-operative activities of two or more persons.” Organization is essentially a matter of relationship of man to man, job to job and department to department. Organization is the process of dividing up of the activities which are necessary to any purpose and arranging them in groups which are assigned to individuals. Organization is necessary for attaining maximum efficiency with minimum of resources.

 There are three main types of organization structure.

1) Line organization

2) Functional organization

3) Line and Staff organization.

Line Organization

(Oldest and Simplest Style)

 In this type of organization, the line of authority flows directly from top to bottom and the line of responsibility flows from bottom to top in opposite direction. Each departmental head has complete control over his section and he is fully authorized to select his labor, staff, purchases of raw materials, stores and to set the standards of output etc. The responsibility of each departmental head is clearly defined. Each department works

Functional Organization

 F.W. Taylor suggested functional organization, because it was difficult to find all round persons to qualified to work at middle level management levels in the line organizations. Each specialist is supposed to give his functional advice to all other foremen and workers. Each specialist is authorized to give orders to workers, but only in regard of his field of specialization.

The main feature of functional organization is the division of work and specialization. In each department, there is one expert. An expert is not only a counselor but also an administrator. He advices his subordinates. AAn Expert does not only bear responsibility of his department but also bear responsibility of all departments. For example, Purchase Manager will take responsibility of purchasing items for all departments. HR Manager will take responsibility of recruitment of all departments.

Line and Staff organization. The line and staff organization combines the line organization with staff departments that support and advise line department. In each department, there is one expert and some line personnel’s / line officials. Line official will do all managerial work and expert will give advice to line official or line personnel.

 Line and staff organization is that in which the line heads are assisted by specialist staff. The line maintains discipline and stability, staff provides experts information and helps to improve overall efficiency. Thus the staff are thinkers while the line are doers.