Roles and Responsibilities

We’ve discussed the formal and informal organizational structures; the same dynamic applies to people and their official and unofficial roles and responsibilities. In my experience, as in our personal lives, people within an organization often take on additional roles and responsibilities not because they are assigned, but because they have a natural talent or interest in a subject. Most of us have reached out to an office colleague before calling IT for help. This illustrates the interplay between official and unofficial roles and responsibilities. In most cases, these situations arise naturally, and that’s fine. It becomes challenging when unofficial responsibilities become central and critical to operations. Even something as simple as a colleague providing local tech support can create problems if taken too far. The unintended consequences of this situation can impact the organization. For example, if leadership has no idea that over half the IT trouble tickets are being fixed by employees, they have a false read on the capabilities of their IT systems and may underestimate how much work individual departments can do, since, for example, half their time at work is spent fixing IT issues. This is an obvious oversimplification of an otherwise complex situation within an organization. The point is that it’s important for leadership to be sensitive and aware of the complex interconnectedness of organizations.

Structure, Roles, and Processes Move Together

It’s tempting to examine Structure, Roles, and Processes independently. In reality, changing one usually affects the others. Change a process, and someone’s responsibilities may shift. Introduce new technology, and a process that once required five people may now require two, or the new technology may create entirely new responsibilities. Move a function from one department to another, and information may travel a different path.

Change someone’s responsibilities without evaluating and potentially adjusting the processes around them, and you may create duplication or gaps. This is why organizational problems are often difficult to diagnose. What appears to be a people problem may actually be a process problem. What appears to be a process problem may have been created by the structure. What appears to be a staffing problem may really be a workload or responsibility problem.

A job description might say one thing while everyday behavior tells a different story. Over time, that can become part of how the organization actually functions. Sometimes this kind of natural drift is beneficial. People discover talents, develop expertise, help one another, and solve problems that the formal organization did not anticipate. But it can also create problems. The person everyone depends on may become overloaded. Their assigned work may suffer because they are performing unofficial work. Another part of the organization may appear properly staffed on paper even though someone elsewhere is actually doing part of its job. And if that informal expert leaves, leadership may suddenly discover that an important organizational capability has left with them.

That’s why organizational awareness requires periodically asking two different questions:

What are people supposed to be doing?

And:

What are they actually doing?

The difference between those answers can tell you a great deal about an organization and can matter to the employee too. They may be doing work above their level, supporting another function, carrying institutional knowledge, training others, or solving recurring problems without that contribution being reflected in their job description, workload, performance discussion, development plan, or compensation.

Organizations Drift.

Organizations rarely remain exactly as they were designed. People change. Leaders change. Technology changes. Workloads change. Customers change. New systems are introduced. Old processes remain. Responsibilities accumulate. Temporary solutions become permanent practices. Most of these changes make sense individually. Collectively, however, they can gradually create an organization that operates very differently from the one shown on paper.

A team that was appropriately sized five years ago may now be overwhelmed because technology increased the volume of work reaching it. Another team may still exist because it has always existed even though much of its original work has disappeared. A process may continue to pass through several levels of review even though the reason for those reviews no longer exists.

This kind of organizational drift isn’t the result of bad leadership. More often than not, it’s the accumulated effect of hundreds of reasonable decisions made at different times for different reasons. The understanding of how an organization worked two years ago may no longer accurately describe how it works today.

What Roles and Responsibilities Mean to You.

If you’re the lead on an initiative, understanding the formal and informal roles and responsibilities helps you navigate the organization and can mean the difference between success and failure.

If you’re looking for a promotion, whether for better pay or greater responsibility, understanding job titles and the associated responsibilities can help you recognize opportunities and what elements of your resume to focus on.

If you’re responsible for process improvement, understanding roles and responsibilities, what people are supposed to be doing and what they are actually doing, can mean the difference between creating a more efficient and effective system and creating another system that doesn’t improve the situation much.

If you’re simply trying to do your job well, understanding how your responsibilities align within the organization, who depends on your work, and whose work you depend on can help you work more effectively.

That can matter to the employee too. They may be doing work above their level, supporting another function, carrying institutional knowledge, training others, or solving recurring problems without that contribution being reflected in their job description, workload, performance discussion, development plan, or compensation.

Where you sit shapes what you see. Understanding organizational roles and responsibilities helps you see beyond the seat you’re currently sitting in.

RuReady Framework Connection

This article is the third in the LK08 Organizational Awareness series within the Leadership Domain of the RuReady Adult Readiness Framework. It focuses on the difference between assigned roles and actual responsibilities, how those responsibilities change over time, and why understanding that difference matters to both individuals and organizations.

If you haven’t already, explore Organizational Awareness: Understanding How Organizations Really Work for the broader concept and Organizational Structure: Understanding How Organizations Really Work.

Explore the complete series:
Skill (US03.01): Time and Task Management Workflow
Skill (US03.02): Time and Task Management Workflow: The What
Skill (US03.03): Time and Task Management Workflow: The Self
Skill (US03.04): Time and Task Management Workflow: The When
Skill (US03.05): Time and Task Management Workflow: Only Do What Only You Can Do

If you enjoyed this article, explore the broader RuReady Adult Readiness Framework:

Preface: A Field Manual for Adult Life
Chapter 1: Why Do We Do What We Do?
Chapter 2: An Exploration of the RuReady Framework
Chapter 3: Life Skills for the Personal Domain
Chapter 4: Career Skills for the Professional Domain
Chapter 5: Leadership Skills for Every Level

Before moving on, feel free to use the checklist below to assess your readiness level.