What are the differences between line and staff functions?

Line workers are on the front line of a business, handling the core corporate functions while staff workers play a support role and handle the behind-the-scenes work. These divisions don't exist in every organization, but are mainly in large organizations.

Employees with profit-and-loss responsibilities like making key purchasing and manufacturing decisions for a company constitute the line class of professionals. These revenue generators are also responsible for other activities that go into a company's successful day-to-day operations, such as sales.

Staff employees have in their purview functions such as accounting and management planning. Moreover, a company's attorneys are part of this group.