Chain of Command

Brenda R. Kallio & Anita Pankake

The chain of command relates to the flow of authority within an organization. According to Henry Fayol, the manager's role includes five functions: planning, organizing, controlling, coordinating, and commanding within the organization. Fayol also set forth 14 principles of management, which include the concepts of authority and responsibility and unity of command. Authority and responsibility deal with who in the organization has the “right to give orders” and to whom, and “unity of command” limits the receipt of orders to an employee to only one source. In 1930, James D. Mooney wrote of the “scalar principle,” noting that in some organizations, this is called “hierarchical design.” Scalar refers to the ranking In ...

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