Episode 5000: Who is responsible in companies? – Structural aspects

After I meant in the last Bguvljer to fulfill the boundary conditions of §130 OWiG.

I would like to illustrate this with the adjacent graphic.
The entrepreneur is at the top.

In principle, I always assume that there is a consensual will to comply with rules and regulations in every company. And always and not just when the advantage is in your favor. Anyone who is not prepared to do so should think for themselves.

First of all, I would like to say something about “personnel”. In every company there are chiefs and Indians. Ideally, one chief and the rest are the Indians. Unfortunately, this principle is no longer so easy to adhere to in our multi-faceted working world. That’s why there needs to be a clear structure.

The 2nd level contains the persons who implement and fulfill some of the entrepreneur’s duties in his place. They must be appointed by the entrepreneur in accordance with §9(2) OWiG.
The 3rd level includes employees who work exclusively on behalf of the entrepreneur and perform special tasks. These are, for example, team leaders, shift leaders, etc.

All other employees are located at the 4th level. There is a control and reporting system between all levels. Control is carried out from top to bottom and reporting from bottom to top.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the desire to abolish hierarchies is overshooting the mark. What sense does it make to hold a team leader accountable if they are not allowed/able to assert themselves over their team because they have been denied the necessary authority? This is one of the reasons why things go wrong.

The whole thing can also be presented as a three-legged stool. It doesn’t always stand horizontally, but it doesn’t wobble either.
The implementation can be reduced to three legs:

• organizational measures
• technical measures and
• Personnel measures

An organization chart is usually the tool used to graphically illustrate responsibilities, duties and controls.

This fictitious organization chart is intended to illustrate the principle of who is responsible from top to bottom and who reports to whom from bottom to top.

It is therefore unacceptable for a sales manager to overrule the logistics manager on a Friday afternoon and decide that an unsuitable truck will be loaded anyway because he has made a promise to his customer.

Who takes responsibility in the event of an incident? The sales manager or the logistics manager?

Of course, each company must refine and precisely describe this rough structure for itself.

However, an organizational structure designed in this way does not relieve the managing director of his responsibility. He has to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Practical experience shows, however, that there are always situations that do not go as planned. In order to minimize the number of such situations, all those responsible should know their area and know how day-to-day business runs. A manager who never visits his or her area to get a first-hand impression because of all the meetings will sooner or later fall flat on his or her face.

If a corporate culture has developed in which no one dares to report negative news to the top, then at some point incidents, accidents, damage or similar will reveal this state of affairs. Even if a captain has a first officer and a helmsman, he will regularly be on the bridge to check that the ship is on the correct course. The core statement of the manning regulations is that “the crew must be so composed that the ship can always be safely navigated under all conditions“. Every managing director, operations manager or similar should adopt this basic principle.

In the next episode, we will go even deeper into the practice. Stay tuned.

Yours, Sigurd Ehringer

Thomas Bauer

✔ Marketing | Web | CI