Rules for Staff Work.

Staff work is not done to advance knowledge; its only justification is the improvement of the performance of operating people and of the entire organization.

First, staff should concentrate on takes of major importance that will continue for many years. A task of major importance that will not last for-ever - for example, the reorganization of a company's management - is better handled as a one-time assignment. Staff work should be limited to a few tasks of high priority. Proliferation of staff services deprives them of effectiveness. Worse, it destroys the effectiveness of the people who produce results, the operating people. Unless the number of staff tasks is closely controlled, staff will gobble up more and more of operating people's scarcest resource: time.

Effectives staff work requires specific...