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By understanding that authority and responsibility are not identical concepts, we can avoid potential issues affecting team performance.
Most of us can recall managerial experiences where we accepted an assignment, performed it satisfactorily, and later were criticized for undertaking the issue or were reproached for the method, mode, or technique used. We may remember becoming irritated with subordinates when they handled issues without previously informing or consulting with us, regardless of how well they performed the task. Situations of this nature may evolve into deterioration of interpersonal as well as work relationships within teams, eventually affecting team performances. Such phenomena are examined in this article.
A simple managerial tool for detecting and possibly avoiding such incidents and to instead obtain more effective managerial strategies and team goals is proposed. Serving in a management position involves handling a never-ending series of issues and challenges. Long-term managerial success depends on effective as well as efficient achievements regarding issues and challenges. Yet a variety of obstacles reveal themselves, often unexpectedly, along the route to anticipated successful achievements.1
One issue involves ambiguity related to authority and responsibility among workers and managers. This exists at all hierarchical levels and complicates the processes of decision making and follow-through. This can lead to awkward and unpleasant situations. For instance, a worker can invest significant time in an assignment and have the manager not support the results, demanding that an alternative approach is used. When the manager contradicts the selected course of action, it can delay or even halt an entire project.
Can we foresee such obstacles? Can we acquire some preliminary warnings as to the probability and viability of similar difficulties throughout the future implementation process of an assignment or project? Can we handle such obstacles in advance, or can we prevent them somehow?
The Concepts of Authority and Responsibility
Authority is defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English2 as follows: "Power or right to give orders and make orders obey;" "right given to." Adizes3 defined authority in managerial contexts as "the formal right to say no and yes regarding a particular issue/problem/ decision." Authority, according to this definition, "is the option given to any person, within his job, to take any decision he chooses, independently and autonomously,...