Staff Authority Definition: Staff Authority vs. Line Authority

Staff authority is an organizational principle that grants people in staff positions a certain authority in the management and decision-making of line workers.

To understand more about staff authority, it helps to clearly understand the difference between a staff position and a line position:

• Line positions focus on the company’s core offerings. Most companies have line organizations, and those line organizations create the products and services sold to customers. The company’s line workers can include supervisors like production managers; they can also include everyday workers. In a car company, the line organization would consist of the groups responsible for building and selling the cars.
• Staff positions support line organizations. Companies also have staff organizations; a typical staff role does not directly produce the service or product sold to customers. Instead, they provide ancillary services to the organization, like legal services or office management. Even though staff specialists aren’t on a production line (or oversee line workers), staff functions still contribute to overall organizational goals. In a car company, for example, a staff specialist might be a human resource manager or a general counsel.
• Staff authority occurs when a staff member offers advice or direction to the line department. This breaks the typical lines of authority—where line workers report to project management supervisors—but staff perspectives may provide additional value to the line organization.

In large corporations and certain small businesses, the line organizational structure involves a chain of command that starts with corporate executives and channels down through line managers overseeing line functions. At the same time, these businesses may also have a staff organizational structure that does not directly involve the company’s core product but still serves broad organizational goals.

Staff authority describes the dynamic when the line-staff boundary breaks down, and staff members offer insight to line workers or line managers. To visualize an example, imagine a company’s general counsel offering strategy advice to its sales manager. Such interactions fall outside a company’s normal chain of command, but they introduce employees to new perspectives that can only surface when workers connect across department boundaries.

Most large companies have line positions subject to line authority. They might also have staff positions that can offer advice to line workers, and this qualifies as staff authority.

Line authority involves the normal chain of command on a company’s core product line. Line authority describes the process of product managers giving instructions to line workers, or top management giving instructions to product managers. Line authority involves centralization of power, a clear chain of command, and work directly related to the company’s customer-facing products or services.

Staff authority involves staff positions supporting line positions with advice and insight. Staff workers do not have formal authority over line workers. For instance, a company’s in-house accountant cannot tell a marketing manager how to do their job. Yet, these staff members can support line managers and line workers by offering insight and advice. In doing so, they exert staff authority.

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