page_title: J. Slater Lewis
section_title: Staff Organisation Diagram
hierarchical_section_title: J. Slater Lewis / Work / Commercial Organization of Factories, 1896. / Staff Organisation Diagram
caption_attribution_description: English: Staff Organisation Diagram, 1896
context_page_description: Joseph Slater Lewis MICE FRSE was a British engineer, inventor, business manager, and early author on management and accounting, known for his pioneering work on cost accounting.
context_section_description: Diemer (1908) credited Slater Lewis for introducing a chart system to illustrate the staff organisation of the factory. His work expressed a "surprisingly modern in its attitude towards organisation structure." Slater Lewis (1896) stated:
  The question of staff precedence is also one which deserves more attention than it usually receives, and is very often a fertile source of jealousy and heart-burning amongst employees. In no circumstances should any members of the staff be placed in positions antagonistic to one another, or given dual and overlapping control of one or more departments. It would be just as imprudent as allowing two commanders to dispute for mastery on the same ship, or as having no degree of rank amongst the officers, or any dividing line between the duties of the steward and those of the carpenter. It is imperative that every member of the staff should have a clearly defined position, and be given to understand in unmistakable terms to whom he has to look for orders, otherwise continual bickering and consequent dis-organisation will inevitably occur. It should also be intimated to every official, particularly in the minor positions of responsibility, that they must exercise self-control and not ride roughshod over those who may happen to be their subordinates.
  In the last chapter of his work Salter Lewis presented a short paragraph about the "Diagram of Staff Organisation," which read: 
  Some officials being disposed, not infrequently, to regard themselves as equal, if not superior to men who are really their masters, it is essential to the well-being of all industrial concerns to have a definite organisation under which responsibility may not only be fixed, but the relative positions or rank of the officials clearly defined. For this purpose it is necessary to have recourse to a diagram such as the Specimen (see image)...
  The diagram should be carefully drawn in bold lines and clear letters on a sheet of drawing paper not less than 'double elephant' size. It should then be framed and placed in a conspicuous position in the general offices...
  The diagram can of course be varied to suit particular organisations, though, as it stands, it is as nearly as possible in accordance with the general practice prevailing in this country...
  Urwick & Brech (1946) noted that to their knowledge, this is "the first example of a modern organisation chart in British business literature." They concluded that "the fact that in a treatise so intimately concerned with every aspect of management, organisation structure is touched on so incidentally as regards method indicates how little the need for definition of formalised relations in an industrial enterprise had been appreciated by the end of the nineteenth century."
caption: Staff Organisation Diagram, J.S. Lewis 1896.
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