An employee becomes frustrated by conflicting orders from different supervisors. This problem is caused by violation:

• A. Chain of Command
• B. Unity of Command
• C. Division of Labor
• D. Span of Control

Answer: (B)

Unity of Command means each employee should receive direction from a single supervisor to avoid conflicting instructions. When an employee gets orders from multiple supervisors, the authority becomes unclear, leading to confusion, delays, and potential safety risks because you can’t meaningfully follow two different directives at once. Establishing one clear point of command ensures consistent priorities and actions. The other concepts—Chain of Command addresses the formal line of authority, Division of Labor is about how tasks are split, and Span of Control concerns how many subordinates a supervisor can manage—do not specifically fix the problem of conflicting orders from more than one supervisor, which is what Unity of Command targets.