Final answer:
Handling work between departments is often more challenging than within departments due to differences in goals, working styles, and communication channels. The necessity for negotiating distinct priorities and expectations can introduce conflicts and workload issues, demanding strong interdepartmental communication and sometimes flexibility in role definitions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Generally, handling work between departments is often more difficult than within a single department. This complexity arises from several factors, including varying department goals, different working styles, and the potential lack of direct communication channels. Within a department, colleagues usually share similar objectives and are accustomed to their peers' working and communication styles. On the other hand, interfacing between departments may involve navigating different priorities and expectations, which can introduce conflict and work overload.
For example, a university setting clearly delineates roles with psychology professors focusing on teaching while the Office of Admissions handles financial aid forms. This simplifies task allocation within departments. However, consider a restaurant where a hostess, typically responsible for seating customers, witnesses a backlog in the kitchen. If she steps out of her defined role to help deliver food, this could either be seen as a collaborative effort to improve efficiency or a breakdown in the established division of labor, depending on whether the flexibility is embraced by the establishment.
In the context of the executive office of a president, differing priorities and external influences on staff can complicate the president's ability to get departments to execute his vision effectively. The bureaucratic structure is meant to streamline decisions and actions, but can also introduce red tape that hampers responsiveness and the execution of cross-departmental tasks.
Thus, handling work between departments requires excellent communication, mutual understanding of goals, and sometimes flexible role definitions to address challenges such as different generations, unclear managerial roles, complex interdepartmental relationships, and diverse external influences.