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Perspective

Responsibility requires influence

People can take responsibility when they have a genuine opportunity to influence what they are expected to take responsibility for.

Understand the perspective See what it means in practice

Core idea

Taking responsibility requires a genuine opportunity to influence.

Organisations often want people to take responsibility. This becomes possible when people can influence the factors that shape their work.

This perspective shows that responsibility needs to be accompanied by influence. When people can influence ways of working, priorities and conditions, responsibility becomes more concrete and sustainable.

Perspective 07

Responsibility without influence creates frustration. Responsibility with influence creates agency.

What this means for organisations

Executives, HR and managers need to see where responsibility and influence drift apart.

In practice, this perspective means examining where people are given responsibility without sufficient authority, information or resources. These gaps often lead to stress, passivity or unnecessary escalation.

Executive leadership

Responsibility needs to be designed into the organisation.

Executive leadership needs to ensure that the allocation of responsibility, decision-making paths and authority support the work that needs to be done.

HR

Role clarity becomes a key condition.

HR can contribute by showing where roles, responsibilities and opportunities to influence need greater clarity.

Managers

Dialogue clarifies what the team can influence.

Managers need to help teams distinguish between what they can act on, where they need support and what needs to be escalated.

Connection to Verksamhetsskap®

Verksamhetsskap® shows where responsibility needs to be accompanied by influence.

Verksamhetsskap® connects responsibility with Purpose, authority and conditions. This makes it possible to see where people have responsibility without sufficient influence.

Agerus puts this into practice through surveys, dialogue, training and consultancy support, enabling the organisation to create clearer connections between responsibility and genuine agency.

  1. PurposeGives work direction and meaning.
  2. ConditionsEnable people to succeed.
  3. DialogueCreates shared understanding in everyday work.

Explore further

See the perspective in a wider context.

Next perspective

Change the situation, not the person

Explore why organisational barriers often need to be addressed in the situation rather than placed on the individual.

Go to Perspective 8

Related principle

Performance requires the right conditions

The principle shows how authority, influence and the right conditions enable people to take responsibility and perform sustainably.

Go to the principle