Departmentalization The foreign division described in this book has been divided into many departments. The departmentalization of banks differs, of course, and some departments, such as purchasing, restaurant, time clerk, etc., are so elementary and so similar to departments in any line of business that it is not deemed expedi ent to describe them. The names given to departments are not as well standardized in the foreign division as in the domestic division, largely because this division is newer and the character of its work is more diversified and fluctuating.
As the volume of business expands, the departments tend to cleave along natural lines into more specialized departments. For instance, the collection department may be divided into two parts, one handling items payable abroad for domestic or foreign accounts and one handling iteins payable locally for foreign accounts. The commercial credit department separates into two parts, one to handle import credits and the other export credits, and the mail department into divisions to handle in coming, registered, and outgoing mail. However small the for
eign division of the bank may be, the many operations here detailed have to be performed, whether they be handled by a few clerks with composite duties, by specialized clerks with limited groups of duties, or by specialized departments in which the duties of the clerks are still further specialized. The nature and volume of the business is the basis of departmentalization. An exposition of the organization and development of a large and well-organized foreign division will offer the new and growing organization suggestions for the apportionment of their work among clerks and later among departments. The following chapters will describe the internal organization and state the general duties of each of these departments, showing how these duties are apportioned among the clerks, how and why each banking operation is performed, and how authority and responsibility are distributed.