Assertion (A): Unity of command cannot always be strictly applied in practice.

Reason (R): Workers should report to different supervisors for different aspects or tasks technical, financial, administrative etc.

Solution

• Unity of command: An employee should receive orders from only one superior as shown in the figure below.   • This principle is against the Taylor’s functional foremanship where multiple superiors oversee the subordinate. As per Fayol if there is no unity of command it will lead to conflict as subordinate will never know whom to obey. Adoption of this principle leads to clarity about work whereas violation will lead to confusion about what to do and what not to do. • However, Unity of command cannot always be strictly applied in practice, because no manager has all the required skills. For example, a marketing manager will not have the knowledge regarding the work done in the production department. Therefore, if an employee of marketing employee has a doubt regarding production department, in that case, the employee is bound to visit the production manager and that is a grave violation of unity of command. Therefore, assertion is correct. • Moreover, globalization has forced the Indian companies to create multiple business divisions, and therefore workers should report to different supervisors for different aspects or tasks technical, financial, administrative etc. and that will lead to a higher specialization in the work profile of different employees. Therefore, reason is also correct. Hence the correct answer will be option A.