OFFICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 561 



In this case, as is true in most cases, it is impossible for the sake of 

 economy in organization for the office manager to assign one or more persons 

 exclusively to financial records and another group to special assessments. 

 It has been necessary for him to describe in detail the general processes of 

 the office and the records to be kept in each of the above classifications and 

 then assign various employees to handle the records and be responsible for 

 certain of the processes so described. 



To illustrate: One of the positions exclusively assigned to financial 

 records is that of principal bookkeeper, whose duties have been enumerated 

 as follows: "Under direction of the chief clerk, to either post or have posted 

 the general journal and general ledger and subsidiary ledger, all of which 

 contain the controlling figures of all receipts and expenditures of the board; 

 under the direction of the assistant superintendent, to have charge of the 

 compiling of the budget of the board of park commissioners and the plan 

 of expenditure for the year; to supervise directly the work of the senior 

 bookkeeper and the junior bookkeeper; in general, under the direction of 

 the chief clerk, to have charge of all bookkeeping processes of the depart- 

 ment and to be responsible for the issuance of regular monthly statements 

 which are to be out not later than the tenth of each month; and to perform 

 related work as required." These duties have been described in minute 

 detail under the "approved methods" of that position in the same manual. 



Should the manager be stepping into an old organization, it probably 

 will be necessary for him to conduct a simple survey to determine how well 

 delegated his own duties are. Having each employee turn in a question- 

 naire similar to Figure I will probably suffice. A comparison of these, with 

 the duties of the manager, reveals loopholes that the manager must fill. 

 He does so by a reassignment of duties as outlined above. Where his ideas 

 differ greatly from his predecessor, an office reorganization results. Except 

 where the former organization was generally conceded to be grossly ineffi- 

 cient, a new manager will do well to make changes very gradually. 



j. Organization charts. When the manager has successfully analyzed 

 his own duties and delegated them to real or imaginary employees, he is 

 ready to construct an office organization chart. It is his "architect's plan" 

 of the "organization structure." It is a system of oblong enclosures on 

 paper, in each of which is written the name of the positions the manager's 

 duty analysis has created and the positions connected with lines repre- 

 senting the lines of authority in the organization. Figure 2 is an example. 

 Such a chart, once devised, clears up many misunderstandings as to duties, 

 authority and responsibility. It should be familiar to all employees. A 

 study of the chart brings up for solution such problems as the determination 

 of individual qualifications, grades of employees and compensation. 



