Structure of Personnel Management

According to Fisch and Logan, there is no practical relevance of the concept of line and staff. Still it has been an important part of management since beginning  i.e, that is way it is not easy to separate or remove it. It is still possible at initial stages of the organisation to clearly demarcate between line and staff functions as well as people but not an easy affair in case of big organisations.

Now a days, only production and sales may not be treated as line functions. There is not clear cut line between line, staff and functional in modern and big organisation but one manager may be granted all the three types of authority simultaneously. Undoubtedly, if there is clarity in defining these authority relationships, it will definitely improve the working of the organisation by avoiding the gap and overlapping of authority and responsibility.

Authority relationship can be shown through the structure of personnel department. There are various names to depict the authority relationships and to know whom to report. The very popular name is organisational chart which is a vital tool to know about organisational relationships.

Organisational chart can be divided into

• Master Chart
• Supplementary Chart

Master Chart It shows the authority relationship of complete organisation as whole.

Supplementary Chart It shows the authority relationship of any department or major component of the organisation, which is an important part of the organisation.

Uses of Structure of Personnel Department

• Structure of personnel department serves as an information box to know about the authority and responsibility relationships.
• It helps even a new joinee as he can easily locate his interactional pattern through this.
• It is prepared only after job analysis and helps to avoid overlapping of authority and responsibility and duplication of work.
• It also helps in bringing out the organisational weakness, solutions can be found out in case of any problem.
• It helps in solving organisational conflicts.
• It provides the guideline for training and development in the organisation as it provides the information of what one is expected to do in the organisation and what he can do.