Organizational freedom

The second part of the responsibility and authority requirement requires the supplier to define the responsibility, authority, and interrelation of personnel who need the organizational freedom and authority to ... 

Who are these personnel who need organizational freedom and why do they warrant a special mention This is not meant to imply that you should set up a separate quality department. The standard does not in fact require all personnel to have organizational freedom but it suggests that some people will need organizational freedom to do certain things. 

To provide staff with the necessary organizational freedom you will need one or more problem-reporting procedures and some policies that give staff the freedom to identify, record, and report problems relating to the product, process, and quality system. 

How do you ensure that, when needed, personnel have the organizational freedom to identify and record product, process, and quality system problems, provide solutions and initiate action to prevent the occurrence and recurrence of any nonconformities ... 

How do you ensure that those responsible for results have the organizational freedom necessary to control processing, delivery, or installation of product ... 

This requirement addresses the implementation of the improvement plan prepared to deal with problems requiring preventive action. The improvement plan should have defined who is to take the preventive action and also the extent of the action to be taken that is, only in the area where the trend was detected or over a much wider area. In initiating the action (see also Part 2 Chapter 1 under Personnel with organizational freedom) you need to carry it out in an organized manner, as follows ... 

Authority and organizational freedom to establish, identify and evaluate quality programs and to initiate, recommend and provide solutions. 

Individuals responsible for the management system should have the authority and organizational freedom to identify problems and to initiate corrective actions. They should have direct access to such levels of management as may be necessary to achieve the goals, strategies and objectives of the organization. 

Having the freedom to do more than responding to immediate pressures, more than mind the shop , is at the heart of managing effectively. It is the necessary condition for you to be able to make your distinctive contribution. It is the key to being able to combine managing with leading. Without some organizational time and space , not just for yourself but for those you work with too, there can be little opportunity for creative initiative. 

Some organizations encourage people to co-operate in whatever way they see fit regardless of boundaries. In other, more bureaucratically inclined organizations, a request to someone on the other side of an organizational divide to do something may have to pass up one tendril of the hierarchy and down another. Whatever the protocols, you need to establish your freedom to work across the boundaries. 

However thorough the financial analysis and however rigorous the operational and organizational improvements are, every success story is underpinned by dedicated and competent people. Highly skilled and motivated management teams lead companies that have been acquired by financial sponsors. Such management teams seek entrepreneurial freedom, but they also seek entrepreneurial success. 

Panapanaan and Linnanen (2009) suggest that a successful social investment strategy should consider employees, suppliers, the community, and customers. They assert that a social risk assessment should be conducted to determine the organizational vulnerabilities, which in turn form the focus of the strategy. From an employee perspective, the social risk assessment should consider the following points of potential vulnerability diversity, discrimination, freedom of association, child labor, forced labor, absenteeism, compensation, and flexibility. 

Flat organizational structures (where individuals have more autonomy and freedom) may result in personal agendas being followed rather than company or team objectives. Too many procedures make locating information needed difficult. 

---