Question

The directors of Alfa Ltd, an organisation manufacturing computers, have asked their production manager to achieve a production target of 150 computers per day. The production manager has asked his formed to achieve this target, but he did not give him the authority for the requisition of tools and materials from the stores department. The forman could achieve the desired target. Can the directors blame the production manager and can the production manager blame his formed not achieving target ? Discuss.

Answer 1

The production manager cannot blame the foreman, if he is not able to achieve the desired target, as the authority delegated to a subordinate should be equal to his responsiblility. Authority and responsibility of a subordinate should go hand in hand. This principle suggests that if a subordinate is given the responsibility to do a particular task in a proper manner, he should be given adequate authority to perfoem the task. Similarly, if a subordinate is given authority to do a particular task, he should be equally held responsible for doing the task in the proper manner. In this case, the production manager has not given authority to the forman for the requisition of tools and materials form the stores department. Therefore, forman cannot be held responsible for not achieving the desired result. But, the director can blame the production manager for not achiving the target.