Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Responsibility, authority, and accountability
Responsibility
is the obligation to see a task through to completion. It may be a contractual
obligation or it may be voluntarily assumed, but it cannot be given away. Responsibility can
be shared with another person or group, but it can never be passed downward with no further
obligation. The obligation remains undiluted with its originator.
Authority
is the right to command or force an action by another. Authority allows instruc-
tions to be given to another individual with the expectation that they will be carried out
explicitly. Authority is a derivative of responsibility, since it must come from the ultimate
source of responsibility.
Accountability
involves being answerable to another person for performance. Associated
with accountability is the notion of a reward for acceptable behavior or penalty for unaccept-
able results. Accountability too is derived from responsibility.
The formal organizational structure of an agribusiness defi nes areas of responsibility and
authority, and delineates who is accountable to whom and for what. Historically, the larger
the agribusiness, the more formalized and structured its organization is likely to be. In fact,
in very large businesses it is not uncommon for specialists in organizational development to
constantly review the organizational structure, with an eye toward changes that may facili-
tate the total management process and improve productivity. Today's trend, even among
large agribusiness fi rms, is to fl atten this organizational chart in an attempt to facilitate com-
munication and responsibility from top to bottom, and to keep the costs of administration as
low as possible.
Principles of organization
There is no shortage of books, articles, magazines, and websites on “how to be successful”
in business management. Many factors can be cited, but perhaps the most far-reaching is the
human element: culture, value systems, structures, communications, and personalities.
Although organizations are always in a fl uid state because they are continually changing,
there are several key
principles
that are useful in developing an effective organizational
structure.
The
span-of-control principle
states that the number of people who can be supervised
effectively by one individual is limited. The maximum number depends on many factors,
including the frequency of contacts that must be made, the type of work, the level of subor-
dinates, and the skill of the supervisor. In military organizations, the number of individuals
directly supervised is seldom more than four to seven, while on assembly lines where work
is routine, a supervisor may oversee 30 to 40 people. Information technologies such as
e-mail, cell phones, and the Internet have in general expanded the span of control, with man-
agers supervising more people than they did previously.
The
minimal layer principle
states the number of levels of management should be kept
as low as possible, which is consistent with the goal of maintaining an effective span of
control. As organizations grow, there is a tendency for the levels of management to prolifer-
ate, but each additional level increases the complexity of communications and the opportuni-
ties for breakdowns. More recent trends, consistent with a growing span of control, are for
organizations to “fl atten,” taking out layers of management, and giving each layer more
responsibility and authority.
The
delegation downward principle
states that authority should be delegated downward to
the lowest level at which the decision can be made competently. This allows upper management
