MANAGEMENT
Any student or practitioner of management would be best placed if there is early recognition in their minds and behaviour that there is major distinction between responsibility and authority. They may seem to be intertwined, almost like the Siamese twins, but are very difficult. This differing implication is most critical in the management of business, yet is most overlooked. When more of either is given, much is required. Every manager, whether new or old to the assignment ask for authority, sans responsibility.
Regardless of organisation, country, culture or training most managers when at the apex of managing others, first evaluate what authority he has over them; instead of reviewing what responsibility he has towards them. The usual attitude of such managers Is, give me authority and take upon yourself (the reporting staff) all the responsibility.
Responsibility is that phenomenon which is considered ‘a detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of goal, fate, fortune, luck or one’s neighbour. In the days of astrology, it was customary to unload it upon a star (The devil dictionary).
Perhaps the foremost aspect to determine is responsibility to whom? It could be to enshrined in principles, policies, procedures, organizational values etc. But responsibility is best understood when it is to ‘oneself’, it is the highest and most sublime quality of responsibility. Any act that either enriches the inner person or deforms its inherent natural beauty reflects truly the dimension of responsibility towards oneself.
Managing means responsibility. The reluctance to take upon responsibility therefore creates that initial hesitation in the minds of those young managers designate, who often refuse to move into position of authority. I believe that when responsibility is placed upon colleagues, invariably the response is positive.
If the word is split into ‘response-ability, it can safely be concluded that the ‘response’ to a task assigned will be directly proportional to ‘ability’. Responsibility therefore crowns itself on those heads that possess the requisite abilities. Dame luck, does not arbitrarily smile on people, it carefully chooses those shoulders that have capacity to absorb and endure the challenges of the office. The true opposite of right is duty. ‘The price of greatness is responsibility’, had remarked, Winston Churchill.
All human inertia is shunned only when the manager knows that readiness of action stems from only a strong sense of duty of responsibility. Against this, the highest format of irresponsibility is being oblivious to responsibility with calm and acceptance. (The leadership in Islamabad during December 1971 is the best portrayal in history, of this aspect).
A manager has to command himself before he begins to command others. Only a ruled knows what it is to rule. When you the supervisor, has a frying pan in your hand then you can turn it whichever way you desire. But don’t get the frying pan (read authority) merely because it is better to rule than be ruled. JFK, the young President of US in his address to students of Vanderbilt university in May 1963 had aptly remarked, ‘our privileges can be no greater than our obligations.
The protector of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities.’ Those new towards exercising authority and simultaneously untrained in recognising demands of responsibility, commonly mistake that authority supersedes responsibility.
It is only the dejure authority vested in an office or an individual that can be delegated. Defacto authority is patented to the one who enjoys it and hence can’t be delegated. How much authority should be delegated is always a nagging question for any manager. The delegatee must possess the wherewithal to judiciously use it and respect the responsibility that comes with it. Authority when infused in an individual allows you to understand the man. If you give a sword to a lunatic don’t be surprised if he uses it firstly upon the giver. Great power leads to great abuse.
Non achievement of results is often heaped upon lack of available authority. While most tasks demand acceptance of responsibility. The unwillingness on the part of the supervisors is invariably the cause of not meeting budgets. Excuses have time limitations; and making excuses really leads to accusing oneself.
If faced with failure don’t blame the tools, environment etc. that is to say if you fall don’t blame the foot. Authority and responsibility are not intertwined. Acceptance of responsibility is followed by investiture of authority. Those who display authority on the shop floor get recognised faster and those who take responsibility for all the misdeeds of the authoritarian get it even faster.
To imagine authority by seating arrangement in a conference room is ill-founded for truly who have the charisma of wielding authority would know,’ where McGregor (or any xyz) sits is the head of the table’ or Amitabh Baccahan’s famous line, in a popular movie, ‘queue starts from where I stand’.
Authority is a slave to office and cannot survive when in doubt. The man who says to one go, and he goeth, and to another, come and he cometh, has in most cases, more sense of restraint than the man who obeys him. (John Ruskin in the Stones of Venice).
What therefore is a healthy combination of authority and responsibility or alternatively what equalises authority with responsibility. All opportunities are also obligations. Every possession is a sacred trust be it authority or more responsibility.
Pursuit of authority can remain an elusive dream but the quest of responsibility is always around the corner. Authority does not confer or bring fame upon you; however, responsibility of actions taken last much longer on the canvass of history.
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist
