Authority Responsibility and

Accountability

ATUL PRIYADARSHI
 Authority, Responsibility and Accountability
• Authority is the power delegated by senior executives
to assign duties to all employees for better functioning.
• Responsibility is the commitment to fulfill a task given
by an executive.
• Accountability makes a person answerable for his or
her work based on their position, strength, and skills.
• Responsibility can be shared by many, you can work
with a team to divide responsibilities. Whereas
Accountability is specific to an employee or person
based on their position, skill-set, and strength.
 Authority, Responsibility and Accountability:
Disparities
• Authority is delegated from senior executives to subordinates.
• Authority flows from top to bottom.
• Responsibility streams from bottom to top.

How to be Accountable
• Talk about the risks that are being noticed in the team. Assess the risks and
check whether you are willing to accept these or change the strategies.
• Take part in the decision-making process and check whether there are any
details that you have skipped while forming the strategies.

• Authority means nothing but power. Responsibility means an obligation to

do anything. Accountability means responsibility to answer for the work. 
 Authority
• As per Henri Fayol, “Authority is the right to give orders and
the power to exact obedience.”
• As per Mooney and Reily, “Authority is the principal at the root
of Organisation and so important that it is impossible to
conceive of an Organisation at all unless some person or
persons are in a position to require an action of others.”
• Authority is nothing but the rights or the powers with the
executives which the organization provides them with the aim
of accomplishment of certain common organizational goals.
• Hence, it includes the powers to assign duties to the
subordinates and make them accept and follow it.
• Without authority, a manager ceases to be a manager because
he will be able to make his juniors or subordinates work
towards the accomplishment of the goals.
 Responsibility
• Responsibility is nothing but the duty that comes along
with the job. In other words, it is the obligation of an
employee to complete the task given to him/her.
• It shows that the authority is properly used and work is
done accordingly.
• Definition of Responsibility
• As per Davis, “Responsibility is an obligation of an
individual to perform assigned duties to the best of his
ability under the direction of his leader.”
• As per McFarland, responsibility means, “the duties
and activities assigned to a position or an executive”.
 Responsibility
• Characteristics
• Its importance lies in the creation of the
obligation to perform the work.
• It arises from the superior-subordinate
relationship.
• Unlike Authority, it flows from bottom to top.
• It is always in the form of a continuing obligation.
• No one can delegate responsibility.
 Accountability
• It is the answerability for the performance of the
assigned duties. 
• As per McFarland, “accountability is the obligation
of an individual to report formally to his superior
about the work he has done to discharge the
responsibility.”
• Once a person accepts authority, he deems to
accept Responsibility and Accountability at that
time only.
 Span of Management
• Definition: The Span of Management refers to the
number of subordinates who can be managed
efficiently by a superior. Simply, the manager having
the group of subordinates who report him directly
is called as the span of management.
• The Span of Management has two implications:
– Influences the complexities of the individual manager’s
job
– Determine the shape or configuration of the
Organization
• The span of management is related to the
horizontal levels of the organization structure.
There is a wide and a narrow span of
management. With the wider span, there will
be less hierarchical levels, and thus, the
organizational structure would be flatter.
Whereas, with the narrow span, the
hierarchical levels increases, hence the
organizational structure would be tall.
 Span of Management
Both these organizational structures have their advantages and the
disadvantages. But however the tall organizational structure
imposes more challenges:
• Since the span is narrow, which means less number of
subordinates under one superior, requires more managers to be
employed in the organization. Thus, it would be very expensive in
terms of the salaries to be paid to each senior.
• With more levels in the hierarchy, the communication suffers
drastically. It takes a lot of time to reach the appropriate points,
and hence the actions get delayed.
• Lack of coordination and control because the operating staff is far
away from the top management.
 Delegation and Decentralization
• n an organization, it is not possible for one to solely perform all
the tasks and take all the decisions. Due to this, delegation and
decentralisation of authority came into
existence. Delegation means the passing of authority by one
person who is at a superior position to someone else who is
subordinate to him. It is the downward assignment of authority,
whereby the manager allocates work among subordinates.
•  Decentralization refers to the dispersal of powers by the top
level management to the other level management. It is the
systematic transfer of powers and responsibility, throughout the
corporate ladder. It elucidates how the power to take decisions
is distributed in the organizational hierarchy.
BASIS FOR COMPARISON DELEGATION DECENTRALIZATION
Meaning Delegation means handing over Decentralization is the final
an authority from one person of outcome achieved, when the
high level to the person of low delegation of authority is
level. performed systematically and
repeatedly to the lowest level.
What it is? Technique of management Philosophy of management.
Accountability Superiors are accountable for Department heads are
the acts done by subordinates. accountable for the acts of the
concerned department.
Requirement Yes, for all organization No, it is an optional philosophy
delegation of authority is very which may or may not be
necessary. adopted by the organization.
Liberty of Work Subordinates do not have full A substantial amount of
liberty. freedom is there.
Control The ultimate control is the The overall control vests with
hands of superior. top management and delegates
authority for day to day control
to departmental heads.

Relationship Creates superior-subordinate A step towards creation of

relationship. semi-autonomous units.
 Delegation
• The assignment of authority or decision-making power
or duty of a person who is at a higher level to an
individual who is below his level is known as Delegation. 
• A delegation of authority refers that the senior is
handing over the decision-making powers to his junior.
Although, the senior cannot pass on an authority which
he does not possess. With the help of delegation, the
workload can be divided to different individuals as well
as the responsibility is also shared among them. 
 Delegation
• There are three major elements of Delegation:
– Authority: The rights and powers which are
delegated.
– Responsibility: The duties and tasks which are to
be performed are delegated.
– Accountability: Reporting on the discharge of
responsibility or use of authority is accountability
which cannot be delegated.
 Decentralization
• The transfer of authorities, functions, rights, duties,
powers and accountability of the top level
management to the middle or low-level
management is known as Decentralization.
• It is nothing but the delegation of authority, in the
entire organization or it can be said that
decentralization is an improvement over delegation.
When there is decentralization, the considerable
authority, responsibility and accountability are
vested to the lower levels of the organisational
hierarchy.