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© 2002 Moving Boundaries, inc RESPONSIBILITY CHARTING Note: these are the directions explaining how to complete a responsibility chart. These directions should not be included with your focus paper and Appendix. What is Responsibility Charting? Responsibility charting is a technique for allocating work responsibilities and optimizing work effectiveness. This is particularly important during change efforts when there are often new structures, multiple roles for individuals and new reporting relati onships. Managing such an effort means managing increased ambiguity, role confusion, problems with decision making, accountability and communication. By involving others in completing the Responsibility Chart (perhaps through a Responsibility Charting sess ion or workshop), people have an opportunity to sit down together and determine the best assigned role for the various participants in different tasks or decision processes. This tends to produce greater role clarity, positive support for change and greate r satisfaction. Directions for Completing a Responsibility Chart 1. Specify the decisions/tasks steps and the actors on the Responsibility Grid . a. List the sequence of decisions or steps in a task to be taken along the left side of the grid. b. List the actors by name or title across the top of the grid. These are the individuals who might play some part in the decision making or actions to be taken. 2. Assign a role to each of the actors opposite each of the actions. There are five distinct classes of roles or behavior. a. Responsible (R) — has the responsibility to initiate action to insure that the decision or step in a task is carried out. A very important aspect of the technique is that there can only be one “R” on any horizontal line. Therefore, a consensus must be reached or a unilateral decision made about who has the “R”. b. Approval/Veto (A/V) — has the authority in the situation and must approve or veto the action. Normally “A/V” is limited to one person. c. Sup port (S) — provides resources (ideas, time & effort, equipment or logistical support for the particular action.

Assigning an “S” may also involve consulting with a particular person for information or council regarding the action. d. Inform (I) — must be informed and, by inference, cannot influence the action. e. Not Involved ( -- )— if an actor has no assigned behavior or role for a particular action, indicate this with a dash (-- ). 3. Move the decision about assigning the “R” up one level. The boss decides which of the two employees or team members at the same level should have the “R”. If there is difficulty assigning the “R” Sometimes there are problems deciding who should be assigned the “R”.

There are three ways this problem can be add ressed: 1. Break the step or decision into two or more smaller decisions or steps. This is usually the most desirable alternative. Often when there is a problem assigning an “R”, it means there are really several actions or decisions involved and different pe ople need to be responsible for the different steps. For example, the “R” for large capital expenditures might be different from the “R” for expenditures for office supplies. 2. Move the “R” up one level in the organizational hierarchy. If two managers at the same level of the hierarchy cannot agree on who should have the “R”, move the “R” up to their boss. 3. Move the decision about assigning the “R” up one level. The boss decides which of the two employees or team members at the same level should have the “R”. Interpreting the Responsibility Chart 1. Each horizontal line gives a de facto modus operandi for handling a particular action and its associated roles. The roles are clarified for that action. 2. Each vertical line for a particular actor creates a job description for that person’s work on the task or involvement in the decision making process. 3. Check to be sure someone is assigned an “R” for each action. If there is no “R”, the activity may not be initiated. Conversely, check to be sure there is only one “R” for each action. Otherwise, two or more people may be initiating the action and create a lack of coordination. 4. Check to see if there are too many “A/V’s” assigned for any particular action. If there are, it may take a long time to complete the task and agreement may not be possible. 5. Analyze each actor’s involvement. a. If one person has too many “R’s”, s/he may become overburdened. Perhaps some of the “R’s” can be assigned to another person or to several other persons. This may allow for the development of other actors in this area of the work. b. Someone may have more “A’s” than are needed or s/he d esires. Often subordinate managers give their manager more “A’s” than the boss wants. c. Someone may have only “I’s”. This can often happen to people in lower level positions. Perhaps the role can be enhanced with greater direct involvement. This may also inc rease the person’s motivation to participate as well as prepare them for greater future responsibility. 6. Be sure all actions are included and all are necessary. Responsibility Chart Name of Action Research Project: ACTORS: Person Person Person 3 Person 4 Person 5 Person 6 DECISIONS 1 2 R = Responsibility for initiating actions or using resources (only 1 “R” per row) A/V = Authority to approve or veto S = Support — provide physical or human resources, including ideas or information I = Inform — must be informed -- = Not involved — no assigned role or action