Functional authority consists of the right to give orders within a segment of the organization in which this right is normally non existent. This authority is usually assigned to individuals to complement the line or staff authority they already possess. Functional Authority generally covers only specific task areas and is operational only for designated amounts of time. It is given to individuals who, in order to meet responsibilities in their own areas, must be able to exercise some control over organization members in other areas.
Staff’s ability to initiate actions within a given area of expertise. Functional Authority allows decisions to be implemented directly by the staff. In an organization functional authority can be found in accounting, labor etc areas Rational-legal authority This type of authority rests on the belief in the “legality” of formal rules and hierarchies, and in the right of those elevated in the hierarchy to posses authority and issue commands. This type of authority is often seen as legitimate in bureaucratic systems, which enables impersonal, specific and formal structures of modern companies.
People will hence find this type of authority legitimate, if the authority is distributed to leaders based on e. g. rationality and capability. Legitimate authority can be defined as recognition of events, or governments that have been constituted by legal process. Legitimate authority can also be taken as in university hierarchy which have been voted in to their positions of power by due process of governments of the day, boards and board directors to which the university is part of.
In psychology legitimate authority would be bestowed to the person that is acting in a professional manner of carrying out investigation into the human mind by the AMA, or the BMA if it were in England as these were the medical bodies that would issue the legitimate licence to practice psychiatry, psychology, and et cetera.
Many accounting professionals working for the finance department of a business will be granted the functional authority to veto management decisions and initiate action according to their best judgment. Functional authority is the right which is delegated to an individual or a department to control specified processes, practices, policies, or other matters relating to activities undertaken by persons in other departments.
If the principle of unity of command were followed without exception, authority over these activities would be exercised only by their line superiors. But numerous reasons including a lack of special knowledge, a lack of ability to supervise processes, and the danger of diverse interpretation of policies explain why these managers are occasionally not allowed to exercise this authority. In such cases, the line managers are deprived of some authority. It is delegated by their common superior to a staff specialist or to a manager in another department.
For example, a company controller is ordinarily given functional authority to prescribe the system of accounting throughout the company, but this specialized authority is really a delegation from the chief executive. Functional authority is not restricted to manager of a particular type of department. It may be exercised by line, service, or staff department heads, although more often by the latter two because service and staff departments are usually composed of specialists whose knowledge becomes the basis for functional controls.
Delegation of Functional Authority One can better understand functional authority by thinking of it as a small slice o the authority of a line superior. A corporation president, for example, has complete authority to manage a corporation, subject only to limitations placed by such superior authority as the board of directors, the corporate charter and by laws, and government regulations.
In the pure staff ituation, the advisers on personnel, accounting, purchasing, or public relations have no part of this line authority, their duty being merely to offer counsel. But when the president delegates to these advisers the right to issue instructions directly to the line organizations that right is called functional authority. The four staff and service executives have functional authority over the line organization with respect to procedures in the fields of accounting, personnel, purchasing, and public relations.
What has happened is that the president, feeling it is unnecessary to clear such specialized matters personally, has delegated line authority to staff assistants (or managers) to issue their own instruction to the operating department. Of course, subordinate managers can use the same device, as in the case of a factory superintendent who delegates to cost, production control, and quality control supervisors the functional authority to prescribe procedures for the operating supervisors.
Reference
- http://www. citeman. com/1395-functional-authority. html#ixzz22Y72G9JF
