Good deal about the general policies on which the operation of the company is based

Defining responsibilities

The now retired managing director of Glacier Metal, Wilfred Brown, writes in his best seller Exploration in Management.When a subordinate is newly appointed to a job, he should, if he has been adequately trained. know a good deal about the general policies on which the operation of the company is based, but he will not know the detailed polices of his new manager. He needs, at this stage, a rapid and decisive introduction to and familiarity with those detailed terms of reference which constitute much of the prescribed content of his new job.It is essential to give an explicit statement of the situation at the beginning if unnecessary problems are to be avoided. Newly appointed managers often tend to refrain, if possible, from asking many questions because they feel that, if they do, they will give the impression that they are not able to fill the position or because they want to make an immediate demonstration of their competence by doing the job without guidance.

Practitioners of 'management by objectives' would seem to agree in that they see the essence of management success as the achievement of results in an area of responsibility

The following is a typical example of the problems which can arise when responsibilities are not clearly defmed.

General foreman Jones considers foreman Smith responsible for certain maintenance functions in the department of which Smith is production foreman. These responsibilities include:...

(a) Reporting effective equipment promptly to maintenance.

(b) Investigating all breakdowns and reporting improper maintenance which leads to breakdown.

(c) Making the decision to release equipment for repair when requested by a mechanic.

(d) When a breakdown occurs, finding out the cause, how long it 'will take to repair the machine, and assign operators elsewhere if it is estimated to be over 15 minutes.

(e) Investigating every charge of operator negligence leading to machine down-time and to take corrective action to prevent a ,recurrence.

Foreman Smith reports, that he has no responsibility for maintenance. He does none of the above things. He feels no sense of short-coming since he does not believe that these are his responsibilities. Smith explains this shortcoming as follows: 'After all, the mechanics don't rep0l1 to me, they have their own boss.

If, as is often the case, general foreman Jones never actually gets around to discussing the specific aspects ,to the job but is guided in his appraisal of Smith by checklist of personality traits, the unfortunate subordinate may never loam what his job actually consists of.