authority

Examples of authority in the following topics:

• Fulfilling the Organizing Function

  • Through delegation, managers transfer authority and responsibility to their subordinates.
  • Staff authority: Staff specialists manage operations in their areas of expertise.
  • Staff authority represents a communication relationship with management.
  • It has an influence that derives indirectly from line authority at a higher level.
  • Centralization: The location of decision making authority near top organizational levels.

• Schein's Common Elements of an Organization

  • The four common elements of an organization include common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority.
  • Hierarchy of authority is essentially the chain of command—a control mechanism for making sure the right people do the right things at the right time.
  • While there are a wide variety of organizational structures—some with more centralization of authority than others—hierarchy in decision making is a critical factor for success.
  • Knowing who will make decisions under what circumstances enables organizations to be agile, while ambiguity of authority can often slow the decision-making process.
  • Authority enables organizations to set directions and select strategies, which can in turn enable a common purpose.

• Introduction to Influence and Negotiation

  • An interesting example of authority as a mode of influence is the Milgram experiment.
  • Authority is also an important influence factor.
  • The Milgram experiment demonstrated how significant authority is as a mode of influence.
  • The experiment showed individuals tended to listen to authority even against extremely strong intuitions and sometimes even ethics.
  • In this experiment, people would be influenced to act unethically by authority despite their intuition not to.

• Whistleblower Protection

  • A whistle-blower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged misconduct occurring in a government department, private company, or organization.
  • Some organizations have an ombudsperson who handles such matters on a confidential basis and advises the employee about their options should they wish to take formal steps to report the breach to the appropriate internal or external authorities.
  • This legislation authorizes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reward whistle-blowers (at companies that are required to report to the SEC) who provide information concerning violations of the federal securities laws.

• Decentralizing Responsibility

  • Decentralization is the process of dispersing decision making authority among the people, citizens, employees, or other elements of an organization or sector.
  • In a decentralized organization, the top executives delegate much of their decision making authority to lower tiers of the organizational structure.
  • On the other side of the argument, when companies decentralize authority there can be confusion as to how final decisions are made.

• Characteristics of Organizational Structures

  • Centralization occurs when decision-making authority is located in the upper organizational levels.
  • Decentralization occurs when decision-making authority is dispersed among the lower organizational levels.
  • With decentralized authority, important decisions are made by middle-level and supervisory-level managers.

• Self-Managing Teams

  • While the latter define their own goals, the scope of a self-managing team's authority is limited by goals that are established by others.
  • The lack of hierarchical authority means that personal relationships can overwhelm good judgment.

• Accountability in Teams

  • For accountability to work, teams need to have the resources, skills, and authority to do what they are being held responsible for.
  • Governing authorities have the obligation to report, explain, and answer for resulting consequences of their actions.

• The Organizational Chart

  • New employees or managers can then know with whom to consult about particular issues, as well as understand the distribution of authority within the company.
  • A flat chart will simply look like a line of boxes with no overt authority implied.

• Equity Theory

  • Depending upon the organizational structure and its distribution of authority, the decision to provide monetary compensation for a strong work deliverable is not always in the hands of an employee's direct manager.
  • As a result, managers must monitor their direct reports' earnings, discuss this with their superiors, assess efficacy, and provide intangible rewards (such as recommendations, gratitude, authority, new projects, etc.).