Large firms usually have complicated organisational structures. Several business and functional units form part of it. Often multiple units come together to execute projects. In this setting it becomes essential to clearly define the authority, responsibility and accountability of all the people involved so as to ensure success. Ideally authority, responsibility and accountability should go together.
However, many people get confused over the relationship between these terms. They use these terms interchangeably much to the detriment of organisational success. While authority is the formal or legitimate power to take action, responsibility is the obligation to accomplish the goals related to the position. Accountability, on the other hand is the commitment to honestly accept the consequences of decisions made. If these differences are not clearly understood, smooth execution is simply impossible.
Good match: Not just understanding these terms but maintaining a fine balance between them is also necessary. Quite often people are made responsible for the outcome but are not given sufficient authority to take decisions independently in order to achieve the outcome. This imbalance between responsibility and authority obviously leads to failure. Similarly a good match between authority and accountability is usually missing too. For instance a project manager usually does not have the authority to choose the project scope and objectives. But he is held accountable for the result.
Supposing a project fails because the original objectives were not achievable, the senior authority approving the project manages to save his skin while the project manager who was given an impossible task becomes the target of attack. With only accountability and no commensurate authority there is little a project manager can do to achieve success.
Simple measures: Successful organisations use simple measures to ensure that people are given enough authority to achieve the tasks for which they are responsible and accountable. They see that each person working on a project gets to understand the individual roles and responsibilities. The scope of their authority and accountability is clearly defined too. Executives are imparted trainings to enhance their skills in expressing expectations clearly and also developing accurate methods to measure results. The basic idea is to make sure that everyone understands what is expected of them (responsibilities) and how the results are measured (accountability) so that they are in a better position to check if the authority given to them is enough to produce the desired results. If not they can negotiate for more authority with their higher ups to enable them to succeed at achieving given goals.
No blame rule: Successful organisations also see that a blaming culture does not exist in the workplace. This is because when a blaming culture exists it is only natural that people avoid taking responsibility and all efforts to match authority and responsibility go waste. Therefore these organisations first try to remove fear of failure and rebuke from the minds of the people by allowing them the necessary space to learn, experiment and grow. When fear is replaced with words of encouragement, people act independently and quite successfully too. Freedom to use their discretion and creativity in fact works as an effective motivator and brings out the best from them.
Good organisations, while assigning responsibilities to their employees also coach them on proper professional behaviour. Professional behaviour implies that people should discharge their responsibilities independently with out wasting time waiting for the green signal from superiors at every juncture. Consequently, employees are discouraged from dumping problems upwards and are asked to come up with their own solutions.
They are made to understand that they should always focus on results and to achieve those results they must take action in time. Also if the employees are in the habit of complaining about various issues, they are taught to work constructively to bring the issues to a closure.
A good work culture and a perfect match between authority, responsibility and accountability are absolutely essential for people to be willing to take on new responsibilities, demonstrate ownership and exceed the expectations. If you too happen to be in pursuit of excellence, try creating a fine balance between authority, responsibility and accountability in your organisation just the way successful firms do.
N.Purnima Srikrishna
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