Linear subordination is reporting of an employee to his immediate supervisor, who has the main authority to force the employee to perform work within the specified functional responsibilities. At the same time, the Line Manager is the one, who has basic rights for hiring, remuneration, punishment and dismissal of an employee.
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| Comics by Herluf Bidstrup |
To improve the quality and speed of certain business processes, companies introduce functional subordination, within which an employee for certain previously agreed functions reports simultaneously to another manager or employee from another department. As a rule, the powers of a manager who are functionally subordinate to employees of other departments are small and limited by the ability to demand from the employee meeting the deadlines and quality of performance of certain work.
An example of functional subordination is reporting of sellers to the chief accountant in terms of preparing accounting documents. Within the framework of functional subordination, the Chief Accountant has the authority directly, bypassing his line manager, to demand from the seller the correct execution and timely provision of contracts, acts, invoices, invoices and other established documents.
Administration - reporting to the head of the business unit in which the employee is employed. Administration of the subordinate thus relates to a time tracking and timesheet approval, control of current tasks performance within the unit, establishing various regulations in respect of the subordinate's activities.
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| Comics by Herluf Bidstrup |
Administration and functional subordination may not co-exist within the same unit. In the latter case, it can be called Project management. An example of project management: Unit Manager sets tasks, controls, pays money, etc. for his/her subordinate 'A'. However, if 'A' participates in the project of launching a new product, then within this function he is subordinate to the Project Manager 'B', who is the Manager of another unit. Then this is Manager 'B', who sets the task, controls, and if successful, accounts the bonus given to the subordinate 'A' in the budget.
