Authority  Formal and legitimate right of a manager to make decisions and issue orders  Allocate resources to achieve organizationally desired outcomes.  Authority is distinguished by three characteristics  Authority is vested in organizational positions, not people  Authority flows down the vertical hierarchy  Formal and legitimate right of a manager to make decisions and issue orders  Allocate resources to achieve organizationally desired outcomes.  Authority is distinguished by three characteristics  Authority is vested in organizational positions, not people  Authority flows down the vertical hierarchy 1

Responsibility Duty by which a person is bound by reason of his status or task. Such responsibility implies compliance with directives of the person making initial delegation. An obligation of an individual to carry out assigned activities to the best of his ability. 2

 Managers are assigned authority commensurate with responsibility 3

Accountability ● Mechanism through which authority and responsibility are brought into alignment ● People are subject to reporting and justifying task outcomes to those above them in the chain of command ● Can be built into the organization structure 4

Delegation To delegate means to grant or confer; hence the manager grants or confers on others certain duties in the form of work and authority. The delegation of authority is the delivery by one individual to another of the right to act, to make decisions, to requisite resources and to perform other tasks in order to fulfill job responsibilities. 5

Some of the important features of delegation :  Two-sided relationship  Act of trust  Freedom to think and act  A challenging task  Forward-thinking principle 6

 Centralization the degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point in the organization the degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point in the organization top-level managers make decisions with little input from subordinates in a centralized organizationtop-level managers make decisions with little input from subordinates in a centralized organization  Decentralization the degree to which decisions are made by lower-level employees the degree to which decisions are made by lower-level employees distinct trend toward decentralized decision making distinct trend toward decentralized decision making 7

However, absolute centralization is unattainable because it would mean that subordinates have no duties, power, or authority. 8

Absolute centralization (where there is no room for subordinates) or absolute decentralisation (where there is no coordinated, organized activity) is fictitious in practice, it is a matter of degree along a continuum. 9