Responsibility

Responsibility is the act of giving someone a task they are expected to complete. It is required that you complete the tasks that have been given to you. A manager is in charge of their department. Then he or she assigns responsibilities to the department's employees. Thus, it is the responsibility of each employee to complete their assigned tasks. The management should give the subordinate enough authority to complete the task while delegating responsibility.

Every employee in the company is in charge of doing their jobs well. Consequently, the chief executive officer is in charge of the overall goals of the company. The middle and first line managers acknowledge that it is their duty to complete the tasks assigned to them by their division or unit. Therefore, each level of management ought to begin by approaching their organizational responsibility:

• Defining its main goals and aims.
• Identifying the tasks that must be performed in order to achieve the goals.
• Deciding on the most sensible organizational structure to carry out tasks and satisfy worker needs.
• Distributing accountability for the achievement of goals.
• Establishing appropriate relationships and communication to coordinate all efforts and foster a sense of teamwork.

Every level of management throughout the firm employs the same procedure. As one advances down the organizational levels, power and responsibility decrease and work is merely monitored. The opposite is true when one ascends.

Establishing Task and Reporting Relationships

The organizational structure is translated into action through tasks, procedures, reporting structures, and communication routes. Any structure should assign tasks using the principle of division of labor and allow for the coordination of performance outcomes. Therefore, assigning specified responsibilities to each employee is the first stage in the responsibility system. The process by which managers divide the workload into specific tasks that must be completed by a particular division or department in an organization is known as task-establishing.

Reporting Relationships

The next step is determining how these tasks and activities fit together in the organizational structure after the necessary work activities and tasks have been identified. The unity of command and the span of control, or span of management, are important considerations in reporting relationships in an organization.

The organizational chart often uses boxes to represent the organizational structure, along with vertical and horizontal lines to connect the boxes. The vertical lines show how supervisors and the people they supervise are related in terms of reporting. A working relationship is indicated by the lateral or horizontal lines. Strong working ties with a staff that may oversee and manage the overall work or projects are indicated by a dotted or broken line. However, the worker is not directly in charge. The following are these reporting connections:

• Direct (Solid-Line) Reporting: A relationship between a worker and their immediate leader or supervisor is known as direct reporting. To carry out their overall performance and roles in the organization, the employee receives the majority of their principal advice from the boss. The manager oversees and evaluates the workers' overall performance.

• Indirect (Dotted-Line) Reporting:The employee in an indirect line reporting connection is shown to have additional or more advice, supervision, and oversight while they carry out their overall task for the company. It places a special emphasis on providing supervision for administrative tasks and supporting solid line reporting by supplying the data required for internal employee performance reviews. It is the responsibility of the organization's leaders to ensure that these direct reporting and indirect reporting systems function in a way that upholds the organization's mission and vision while offering a clear framework and direction for the staff members engaged in diverse activities. The supervisors involved in the supervisory relationship should take proactive measures to resolve any instances involving inconsistent counsel and direction offered to the employee.

Creating Accountability Culture in Organization

Being held responsible for one's own acts, or lack thereof, is the definition of accountability. It is a significant organizational issue since there is very little prospect of people delivering excellent performance in the absence of systematic and appropriate responsibility in a company. How can a company establish a climate of accountability where everyone is willing to cooperate for the good of the company? When employees are self-aware and driven to contribute to the company's overall goals and objectives, the culture of the organization takes on a sense of accountability.

The primary goal of creating an environment of responsibility in an organization is to create a permanent and ongoing learning environment. A continuously learning organization ensures that new ideas and knowledge are acquired and applied as a broad framework for dealing with change. It also recognizes the critical need to mobilize the workforce to learn about and engage in organizational challenges in order to achieve continuous improvement. The ability to manage knowledge and utilize it to advance organizational practices is a prerequisite for the development of an accountable culture inside an organization. Members of the organization should also be given the opportunity to experience and see the outcomes of accountability. The development of a culture that reflects rapid and continuous growth and learning, on the other hand, is made possible when employees take ownership of their decisions and actions inside the business and are motivated by the prospect of being given even greater responsibility. However, how can this occur? Here are some strategies for fostering an accountability culture in organizations:

• Therefore, something other than external control must serve as the basis for the accountability norm. According to experts, organizations succeed when all employees are working toward the same objective.
• Who is in charge of what must be obvious, as must the order of importance. People can be held accountable for something if they are aware that it was always a part of their job—including the duties and functions that support and have the potential to have an influence on the bottom and top lines of the company. People are kept informed throughout the process and are able to gauge how well an organization or team is performing in terms of achieving important goals when roles are clearly defined.
• The organization's mission, vision, and goals must be made clear to everyone. This greatly boosts communication between management and line employees.
• For each and every employee in the business, a detailed strategy and set goals must be created in order for them to be followed and completed on schedule. They should be aware that how they approach and carry out their work affects the organization's overall performance. Their routine work habits should be formed from one hour to the next as a result of this awareness.
• Leaders of the company should assist staff in identifying their effective behavior that can aid in achieving the organization's overall goals. Employees can direct their own behavior if they are aware of the importance of accomplishing company goals, which causes accountability levels to be consistently high.
• The importance of their contributions to accomplishing organizational goals and the overall performance of the company must be communicated to employees on a daily basis. Instead than looking for one employee to blame when the desired result is not attained, executives need to pinpoint specific and systemic causes. On the other hand, success needs to be acknowledged, celebrated, and rewarded.
• When more than one team or department is helping to achieve the overall company objectives, the most crucial activities and goals should be clearly identified and expressed first. As a result, the group might hold itself responsible for particular duties or actions that contribute to the results. Then a time was set for a gathering to brainstorm solutions to pressing and rising issues.
• Every employee should have the same vision of what success and dominance in the market mean for both themselves and the company they are employed for. Senior managers should support them and show them how their actions—both individually and collectively—directly affect your company's capacity to succeed and reach objectives. It will be simpler for them to focus their efforts on the achievement of organizational goals if they are aware of the real situation and how to get there.

People at every level of the organization are individually dedicated to achieving the main outcomes intended by the team or organization in an accountability-based culture, and they never wait to be asked for a progress report. As they are intrinsically motivated to meet organizational goals, they report actively, follow up frequently, and continuously monitor and control their own performance rather than waiting. Their guiding principle, "What else can I do to attain the desired results?" inspires them to constantly seek out solutions, create them, and get through challenges.

Reference

(Adhikari, D.R. (2011). Principles of Management. Kathmandu: Sunrise Publication Pvt. Ltd.)