Principle: AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY

Authority is the power to give orders and get it obeyed or in other words it is the power to take decisions.

Responsibility means state of being accountable or answerable for any obligation, trust, debt or something or in other words it means obligation to complete a job assigned on time and in best way.

Authority and responsibility are closely related and this principle states that these two must go hand in hand. It means that proper authority should be delegated to meet the responsibilities.

A match should be there between these two because of two main reasons:--

ü  Firstly, if a person is given some responsibility without sufficient authority he can’t perform better, and also could not accomplish the desired goal.

ü  Secondly, if there is excess authority being delegated to an individual without matching responsibility then the delegated authority will be misused in one way or the other.

This is an important and useful principle of management because if adequate authority is not delegated to the employees they cannot discharge their duties with efficiency and this in turn will hamper the achievement of the organizational goal. Sometimes the relation between management and employees is also badly effected by non delegation of proper authority.

Positive impacts of this principle:

Ø  No misuse of authority.

Ø  Helps to complete job effectively and efficiently.

Ø  Individuals can be held accountable.

Ø  Systematized and effective achievement of organizational objectives.

Consequences of violation of this principle:

Ø  Misuse of authority.

Ø  Responsibility can’t be discharged effectively.

Ø  No one can be held accountable.

Ø  Conflicts between management and employees.