CONCEPT OF RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility-Meaning

The term responsibility is used in management literature in two different sense. Some writers have defined it as duty or task assigned to a subordinate by virtue of his position in the organization. According to M.E. Hurley, “Responsibility is the duty to which a person is bound by reason of his status or task. Such responsibility implies compliance with directives of the person making the initial delegation. ”

In a more comprehensive sense responsibility may be defined as the obligation of an individual to perform the duty assigned to him. According to Koontz and O’Donnell, “Responsibility may be defined as the obligation of a subordinate, to whom duty has been assigned to perform the duty. ” Responsibility is an obligation to perform certain functions and to achieve curtain results. According to R. C. Davis, “Responsibility is the obligation of an individual to perform assigned duties to the best of his ability under the direction of his executive. ”

Characteristics of Resposibility

The main characteristics of responsibility are as follows:

1. Responsibility can be assigned to human beings only. Non-living objects such as a machine cannot be assigned responsibility. 

2. Responsibility arises from a super-subordinate relationship. By virtue of his superior position, a manager has the authority to get the required work done from his subordinates. Therefore, he assigns duties to subordinate who are bound by the service contract to perform the assigned duties. 

3. Responsibility may be a continuing obligation or confined to the performance of a single function. For example, a sales person has continuing obligation to the company comes to an end as soon as the consultancy assignment is completed. 

4. Responsibility may be defined in term of function or targets or goals. For example, the responsibility of labour officer is in term of a function. On the contrary, the responsibility of a worker who is assigned the job of producing 50 units daily is in term of targets as far as possible responsibility should be expressed in term of targets. This will enable the subordinate to know by what standards their performance will be evaluated. 

5. The essence of responsibility is obligation of a subordinate to perform the duty assigned to him. 

6. Responsibility is a derivative of authority. When a subordinate is delegated authority he becomes responsible to his superior for the performance of assigned task and for proper use of delegated authority. Therefore, responsibility should be commensurate with authority.

7. Responsibility is absolute and cannot be delegated. A subordinate may himself perform the duty assigned to him or he may get it done from his own subordinate. But he remains responsible to his own superior in both the cases. According to R.C. Davis, "Responsibility operates somewhat like the table of the magic pitcher in which the water level always remains the same, no matter how much water is poured out."

8. Responsibility flows upward. A subordinate is always responsible to his superior.

9. The person who accepts responsibility is accountable for his performance. Accountability arises out of responsibility and the two go together.

Techniques of Responsibility

Management can use various techniques to define responsibilities so as to actively involve members of an organization in its coordination effort. Two such techniques are: (1) responsibility charting, and (2) role negotiation. Moreover, new organizational positions may be created and line and staff conflict resolved by enhancing the degree of coordination.

1. Responsibility Charting - a responsibility chart is a nice way of summarizing the relationship between tasks and actors (performers). The chart lists activities that are complicated or the decisions that must be made and the individuals who are responsible for each of them. On the vertical axis we show the tasks and on the horizontal axis we show the actors.

The following four roles are important:

1. The individual is responsible for the activity (decision).

2. The individual must approve the activity or decision.

3. The individual must be consulted before completing the activity or making the decision.

4. The individual has to be informed about the activity or the decision.

2. Role Negotiation - Role negotiation is an important technique that can supplement the use of responsibility charting. If used properly, it can lead to clear definitions of tasks and the responsibilities associated with them.

The basic promise of the technique is that nobody gets anything without promising something exchange. Organizational members meet at periodic intervals to list rededication of tasks so nat coordination can be maximized. The primary objective of this approach is to identify the dependent clusters of tasks completed by the organization. The second objective is to match me personal needs and work preference of individuals with the tasks that must be completed.