Line Staff Organisation

Based on the experience gained in improving the efficiency of the traditional organisational form, it was soon realised that for better quality, efficiency and productivity, the control of the project must be in  the hands of personnel who are dedicated to and are loyal to the particular project till its completion. The project manager must be independent and free from any controlling influence of the functional managers. The result was the development of the Line Staff Organisational Form (Figure). 

Line Staff Organisation

In one development, the project manager acting simply as a center of information and activity control. Its basic duty was simply to keep the division manager informed about the progress of the project and  motivate the managers to complete activity within stipulated time and cost. As Galbraith pointed out, these project managers had no formal authority and hence, their efficiency purely depended upon their technical competence, and interpersonal skills. Both he and the functional managers reported to the same individual. Work assignments and merit reviews of the sections were continued to be made by functional managers. There was much resistance to the delegation of authority to the project managers. 

In further development, more authority was delegated by divisional engineer to project managers. He now could assign work to individuals in the functional departments. Additional conflict could develop because functional managers are now forced to share authority with the project managers.