Responsibility
The person responsible to ensure something happens in the expected manner. In project management, this means completing all major milestones on or before their scheduled times, keeping costs and cash flow within the project budget, and delivering quality in accordance with the project standards.
The person responsible for a project is not necessarily the same person who is allowed to change to the project requirements.
Authority
The person authorized to make decisions as to the cost, schedule and other questions that arise throughout the course of the project execution.
The person with authority over a project may allow change the project requirements.
Responsibility, Authority And Reasonableness
When authority and responsibility get confused, conflict and tension occurs. Whether people are marriage partners, parents or children, are neighbors or in business, a lack of understanding about the nature of the relationship between responsibility and authority can create hard feelings and alienate people from each other.
Responsibility involves being accountable for, or having obligations or duties, and acting reasonably. It involves communicating, and being aware of your relationships with others.
Authority involves having the power to enforce obedience or compliance. It can also involve a sense of having the right to control others. Authority may be seen by people as being bad or wrong. It may also be confused with decision-making, something all of us must do regularly in many areas of our lives.
The danger with authority is that it can become an end in itself. Authoritarian people are those that focus mainly on their power and authority, forgetting that any position of authority brings with it the responsibility to communicate and relate with others.
When authority, rather than responsibility, becomes the basis for a relationship between marriage partners, a parent and a child, or a community and an elected body, confrontation and blow-ups will likely occur.
Marriage is a partnership based on respect. One partner does not own the other. If a marriage has team leadership rather than an individual boss, the struggle that is then required to arrive at joint decisions strengthens the relationship. But when you tell your partner, "I'm your boss. You do what I want," you're not being responsible to that relationship. You're trying to take it over authoritatively. You may get compliance. But, you don't build trust, affection or respect.
Responsibility in marriage involves recognizing your needs, expressing them, listening to your partners needs, and then struggling together to come up with a decision which best respects them all
Parenting is built on responsibility, not authority. Parents are responsible to teach social values to their children. The best teaching is teaching by example. Parents have the responsibility to see that children learn how consequences result from their actions. While children remain at home, parents also have the responsibility to prevent them from getting into situations where the consequences of their behavior may be harmful and dangerous to them or to others.
Children often see their parents as authority figures. The difference between being a responsible parent and an authoritarian parent is in your attitude towards what you do. Parents need to honestly tell their children, "I am responsible for making certain decisions while you are under a certain age. I am willing to listen to your feelings, concerns and wishes, but I am not willing to give up my responsibility as a parent. I will make certain decisions, whether or not you totally agree with them." This is quite different from the much too common expression: "Because I'm your father, that's why," "I'm the boss here at home," or "You better do what I say".<
Answered by
Ashish Yadav
at
6:20 PM on February 01, 2009
