What are the Types of the Organizational Authorities?

Types of the Organizational Authorities
1. Line Authority

a. The major function of the authority includes directing the human beings to serve for the united objective, for fulfilling the purpose of the organization.
b. The delegation of the authority makes sure that these humans take the various needed decisions, the actions.
c. The authority delegation makes sure that these humans implement the plans and the various policies.
d. The authority that is provided to an individual by the organization helps in creating the confidence in an individual for any type of the work he does.
e. One of types of the authority is the line authority.
f. Acts as the most common type of the authority.
g. The line authority comes from the top with the help of the levels, till the final operational person in line.
h. The person who is next in the line should assume the work of a boss in the absence of the first one.
i. More is the length of a line of the authority; more is the elongation and the cost of the decision.
j. The cost increases as a result of the structure.
k. Resulting in the slow and routine decision making.
l. Impact of the initiatives is lost as a result.
m. Discipline in the organization also increases.
n. But the productivity decreases.

2. Staff authority

a. Here some people are given the authority to advice.
b. These people are the ones who are having the expertise in the specific field.
c. A legal expert can be appointed for providing the much needed support to the marketing manager.
d. Expert knowledge is also provided.
e. Comparatively less costly.
f. The main requirement of the staff authority is the backing up of the management.

3. Functional authority

a. The intervening within the line authority for the functional purpose is referred to as the functional authority.
b. Here the authority is given to the inspectors, who work on the line but not necessarily on the same line.
c. The main responsibility is to inspect the whole work, which is being done by the line.
d. The personnel manager is provided the power or the right to intervene in the line manager for any of the personnel function.

Different levels of the Authority
1. Organization levels

A. The various levels of the organization are generally born as a result of the effect of the delegation of the authority.
B. The three levels of the organization that arise can be summarized as the follows –

a. The Operation Level Management –
I. This level is referred to as the operation level management as the various operational managers are involved in the actual implementation.
II. Acts as the front line work with the day to day decision making of the structured nature.
III. To a great extent, this level is related to the man machine relationship and the utilization of the resources.
IV. Operational managers include the workers and their supervisors.

b. The Middle Level Management –
I. This level is referred to as the Middle level management as it is placed between the operation level and the top level.
II. Here the various decisions pertaining to the actual use of all the resources and for a span of the time extending upto the financial year are taken.
III. With the help of these decisions, the operational financial results on a year to year basis can also be improved.

c. Top Level Management –
I. People like the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Managing Director, the General Managers, the Presidents, and the Vice Presidents Etc. are involved in this level.
II. The main responsibility of these people in this level of the management is to do the planning of the business.
III. These people also look after the performance of the organization and also play a very vital role of the scanners by which they have to collect or scan the critical information from the internal and the external environment.

2. Vertical organizations –

A. Help in the determination of the authority and the responsibility of any person working in an organization.
B. This determination can be done by providing a position at a particular level to that person.
C. The various levels of the vertical organization can be summarized as the follows –

I. The Operational level – Includes the unskilled, the skilled, the supervisors etc.
II. The Middle level – Includes the assistant managers, the senior managers, and the executives.
III. The Top level – Includes the general managers, the vice presidents, the presidents etc.

D. These three levels are further divided into emolument depending on the manager levels 1, 2, 3 etc.
E. More are the levels; more the management becomes vertically oriented.
F. The more are the levels; more is the cost.
G. More are the levels; more are the opportunities for the manager for the promotions.

3. Horizontal organizations –

A. Also called as the flat organizations.
B. The organizations are referred to as the horizontal or the flat organizations, when the levels in the organization are few in the number.
C. In such organizations, one very important point that forms the basis of this type of the organizations is that the distance between the operational management level and the top level management level is very less.
D. Great emphasis is given on reducing or keeping a control over the costs of the levels.
E. In this type of the organization, the designing of the jobs is done in such an elegant way that the people feel ownership in the work they do and it’s final outcome.
F. The number of the promotions for an individual becomes less, mainly due to the reason of the lesser number of the levels that are present.

4. Circular organizations –

A. Involves a center of an organization.
B. This center performs a major responsibility of guiding and controlling the various activities.
C. Absence of the authority relations.
D. Support relations with some authority required for the implementation of the direction, are present in such organizations.
E. Great emphasis is given on the self managed units that are almost equidistant from the center, from the point of the view of the relationship.
F. Existence of more creativity.
G. Presence of more independence.