Horizontal Coordination

Horizontal coordination is the process through phish activities are integrated across levels instead of up and down the chain of command. In this connection, horizontal coordination's accomplished with the help of two classical guiding principles - functional authority, and he and staff authority. 

Functional Authority 

Functional Authority is the authority to prescribe practices, procedures, policies, or other matters to units or groups not in the direct chain of command. Following the unity of command and scalar principles, such authority is delegated by higher level management to managers affiliated with such technical departments as accounting, personnel, legal, finance, and engineering. 

As the location of technical expertise on such matters as selection criteria, compliance with labour laws and procedures, personnel record keeping, the personnel department is often in a position of 'functional authority' over other departments. 

Examples 

1. The personnel department may be the delegated authority to develop and prescribe the use of an application blank to be used by all clerical applicants. 
2. Similarly, in order to maintain standardized accounting practices, the financial adviser-cum-chief accounts officer may have the authority to prescribe how accounting records will be kept throughout a number of the organisations divisions. 

Line and Staff

'Line' and 'Staff'are two of the most perplexing, ambiguous, overworked, and overdefined terms in the lexicon of the organisation planner. Frequently line functions have been seen as those directly responsible for attaining the organisation's objectives. Staff functions have been seen as those assisting the line in its efforts. Thus, departments such as manufacturing and sales have been described as performing line, function, while departments such as purchasing, accounting, advertising, personnel, plant maintenance, and quality control have been described as performing staff functions. 

The authority of staff in relationship to line personnel varies along a continuum. At the one extreme, staff in purely 'advisory' in its authority. A staff person can be consulted at a line manager's discretion, and staff advice can be accepted or rejected at the line manager's discretion. At the other extreme, functional authority empowers the staff to manager on matters defined as falling within the staff's technical expertise. personnel  department may 'advise' a line manager on desired qualifications for hairgrip new workers; the personnel department may 'require' the line manager to follow statutory reservation and other hiring guidelines. 

Much of the confusion can be resolved if line and staff are considered from a "systems vew point".  From this viewpoint line and staff positions reside not in the departments themselves but in the relationships among them. Using the unity of command arid scalar principles, any manager is a line manager with regard to subordinates over whom the manager has legitimate authority. For example, a personnel manager may have a number of subordinate managers who in turn have subordinates. In that sense, the personnel manager is a line manager in his department. But when the personnel manager ac!vises the production manager, the recommendations are staff functions. If, in turn, the production manager advises the personnel manager or the chief executive, this advice is also a staff function. Thus, the staff components of organisations support line managers with both administrative assistance and specialized technical expertise.