Empowerment and Decentralization Line / Staff Concept and Functional Authority Line Authority • The relationship in which a superior exercises direct supervision over a subordinate • It exists in all organizations as an uninterrupted scale Staff Relationship • The function of people in a pure staff capacity is to investigate, research and give advice to line managers. • It is advisory in nature • Scalar Principle • The clearer the line of authority, the clearer will be responsibility for DM • And the more effective will be the Organizational Communication • Functional Authority • The right delegated to an individual or a department to control specified processes, practices, policies or other matters relating to activities undertaken by persons in other departments Decentralization of Authority Organizational authority is merely the discretion conferred on people to use their judgment to make decisions and issue instructions Decentralization The tendency to disperse decision making authority in an organized structure. Some decentralization exists in all organizations Centralization & Decentralization as Tendencies Centralization Authority in one person No subordinate managers No structured organization Decentralization All authority delegated Position eliminated No organization Kinds of Centralization Centralization of Performance Geographic concentration Company operating from single location Departmental Concentration Concentration of specialized activities Maintenance of a whole plant by a single department Centralization of Management Tendency to restrict delegation of DM