单选题
Company Structure
Most organisations have hierarchical or pyramidal structure, with one person or a group of people at the top, and an increasing number of people below them at each successive level. There is a clear line or chain of command running down the
(21) All the people in the organisation know what decisions they are able to
(22) , who their superior is.
Some people in an organisation have colleagues who help them: for example, there might be an Assistant to the Marketing Manager. This is known as a staff position: its holder has no line
(23) , and is not integrated into the chain of command, unlike, for example, the Assistant Marketing Manager, who is number two in the marketing department.
Yet the activities of most companies are too complicated to be
(24) in a single hierarchy. Shortly before the First World War, the French industrialist Henry Fayol organised his coal-mining business according to the
(25) that it had to carry out, He is generally credited with
(26) functional organisation. Today, most large manufacturing organisations have a functional structure, including production, finance, marketing, sales, and personnel or human resources department. This means, for example, that the production and marketing departments cannot make financial decisions
(27) consulting the finance department.
Functional organisation is efficient, but there are two standard criticisms. Firstly, people are usually more
(28) with the success of their department than that of the company, so there are permanent battles between, for example, finance and marketing, or marketing and production, which have
(29) goals. Secondly, separating functions is
(30) to encourage innovation.