Authority, Power, and Responsibility as Prerequisites of Decision-Making and Manifestation of the Management Style

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical study of the most common and actual theories and approaches to the problem of understanding the correlation between the usage of authority, power, and responsibility in management; their influence on making managerial decisions; and the management style overall. The study suggests that there are various different theories that attempt to explain the nature of leadership, management, and authority. The study differentiates authority and power, with authority being an official right to manage given by the organization hierarchical structure, and power being an unofficial right given by the ability to solve problems. Furthermore, both authority and power come with responsibility, which is a function of control. The study also differentiates management by style. This also leads to differentiation by decision-making approaches: each management style corresponds with a different approach to decision-making. All in all, this article shows how important it is to study the correlation between the usage of authority, power, and responsibility in management in order to be able to choose an appropriate management style to facilitate maximum efficiency and effectiveness of decisions made.