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Most organizations have a hierarchical or pyramidal structure, with a single person or a group of people at the top, and an increasing number of people below them at each successive level (1.i.j)
A clear line or chain of command runs down the hierarchy, so that all employees know who their superior or boss is, to whom they report, and who their immediate subordinates are, to whom they can give instructions (2.e.l)
Some people in an organization have an assistant who helps them; this is an example of a staff position: its holder has no line authority, and is not intergrated into the chain of command (3.g.k)
Yet the activities of most large organizations are too elaborate instead of the traditional departments, which are often at war with each other; usually with production or operations, finance, marketing and personnel departments (4.d.r)
Large companies manufacturing a wide range of products, e.g General Motors, to be organized in a single hierarchy, and require functional organization, each with its own engineering, production and sales departments (5.h.m)
Businesses that cannot be divided into autonomous divisions with their own markets can simulate decentralization, setting up divisions that use internally determined transfer prices when dealing with each other (6.c.n)
An inevitable problem with hierarchies is that people at lower levels are unable to make important decisions, but are obliged to pass on responsibility to their boss, unless responsibilities have been explicitly delegated (7.b.q)
One solution to this problem is matrix management, in which people report to more than one superior: e.g a brand manager with an idea can deal directly with the appropriate managers in the finance, manufacturing and sales departments (8.f.o)
Another, more recent,idea is to have a network of flexible groups or teams, are normally decentralized into separate operating divisions, they are formed to carry out a project, after which ther are dissolved and their members reassigned (9.a.p)