What Is Organizational Structure?
Chain of Command
The chain of
command is the unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of
the organization (e.g., the CEO or the President) to the lowest echelon
and clarifies who reports to whom. At the beginning we talked about
managers reporting to directors, who reported to vice presidents who
reported to C-level leaders. Such is the chain of command.
Two
additional concepts go along with the idea of chain of command. The
first, authority, describes the rights inherent in a managerial position
to give orders and to expect the orders to be obeyed. The second, unity
of command, describes the concept that a subordinate should only have
one superior to whom he or she is directly responsible. If unity of
command doesn't exist, there's a likelihood that a subordinate will be
responding to commands from different people and experiencing a dilemma
of competing priorities, which isn't productive.
We learned about
Henri Fayol and his theories around management, particularly chain of
command and unity of command. These principles used to be a cornerstone
of organizational structure, but advancements in technology and the
trend toward empowering employees makes this less relevant today, but
the chain of command element is not going to disappear any time soon.