📊 Organizational Charts
Big Idea: An organizational chart is a diagram showing the structure of a business -- who reports to whom, the chain of command, spans of control, and how departments are organised.
Explore a sample org chart — toggle between tall and flat to see how hierarchy, span of control and chain of command change
Interactive diagram
Explore the labelled diagram, charts and maps for this topic in full study mode.
What an org chart shows
- Hierarchy -- the levels of management from top (CEO) to bottom (operational staff)
- Chain of command -- the line of authority from senior to junior employees
- Span of control -- how many people each manager directly supervises
- Departments/functions -- how the business is divided (e.g. marketing, finance, HRM)
- Reporting relationships -- who answers to whom
Key terms
- Chain of command -- the path along which orders and decisions travel from top management down to lower levels
- Span of control -- the number of subordinates directly managed by one person
- Delegation -- passing authority to a subordinate to carry out a task
- Delayering -- removing management layers to flatten the structure
- Line manager -- the person directly above an employee in the hierarchy
Exams may give you an org chart and ask you to identify the chain of command, span of control, or suggest changes. Practice reading charts and extracting this information quickly.
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