Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

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Part 3: Organizing

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the subordinate a job to do. The assignment of responsibility might range from telling a

subordinate to prepare a report to placing the person in charge of a task force. Along

with the assignment, the individual is also given the authority to do the job. The man-

ager may give the subordinate the power to requisition needed information from confi-

dential files or to direct a group of other workers. Finally, the manager establishes the

subordinate’s accountability—that is, the subordinate accepts an obligation to carry out

the task assigned by the manager. For instance, the CEO of AutoZone will sign off for

the company on financial performance only when the individual manager responsible for

each unit has certified his or her own results as being accurate. The firm believes that

this high level of accountability will help it avoid the kind of accounting scandal that

has hit many businesses in recent times.

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