The marketing head of a firm allows a junior executive to approve discounts of any size for any customer. However, he assigns the executive only the duty of keeping the customer records up to date.
Which of the following correctly describes this situation and its likely result?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Authority granted is more than the responsibility assigned; it may lead to misuse of authority.
Option (1) Responsibility assigned is more than the authority granted; it may make the executive ineffective. — Incorrect. The executive may approve any discount, but his only duty is to keep records. So authority is the larger one, and the option states it the other way round. Ineffectiveness follows when responsibility is more than authority, which is not the case here.
Option (2) Authority granted is more than the responsibility assigned; it may make the executive ineffective. — Incorrect. The situation is right, but the result is wrong. A person becomes ineffective when responsibility is more than authority, because he lacks the power to do his job.
Option (3) Responsibility assigned is more than the authority granted; it may lead to misuse of authority. — Incorrect. Misuse is the right result for this case, but the situation is reversed. Here authority is more than responsibility.
Option (4) Authority granted is more than the responsibility assigned; it may lead to misuse of authority. — Correct. The power to approve discounts of any size is far wider than the duty of updating records. When authority granted is more than responsibility, the person may use the extra power wrongly. This is misuse of authority. For good delegation, authority must match responsibility.
NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “(ii) Responsibility: … An important consideration to be kept in view with respect to both authority and responsibility is that when an employee is given responsibility for a job he must also be given the degree of authority necessary to carry it out. Thus, for effective delegation the authority granted must be commensurate with the assigned responsibility. If authority granted is more than responsibility, it may lead to misuse of authority, and if responsibility assigned is more than authority it may make a person ineffective.” |