By the Management

           “With great power comes great responsibility” a famous line from the movie Spiderman. I wouldn’t disagree. This statement has been proven true since time immemorial and applies to all the creatures in the universe. The one who has great power has the responsibility of using that power for the benefit of all. Abusing it or giving it to the undeserving will end in chaos. But, then again, “no man is an island”. One can’t have all the power by himself, because if he has all the power, he might end up in system overload and explode. So, to avoid that, there must be this so called distribution of power, but of course the most powerful still has the bigger share. The one with the biggest share of power is responsible for the ones who received fare share of the remaining power and in return are responsible for others with less power. In that way, abuse of power can be minimized chaos can be controlled. If in case one of these powerful individuals failed to perform their responsibility, they have to be replaced with ones who are responsible enough.

                Why is distribution of power important? Why does it have to be done? We seek for equality. But it seems impossible if you are seeking for equality of control especially in an organization. We have this so called division of labor. We can’t all be managers. We can’t all be presidents. We can’t all be workers. If we are all managers, how are we supposed to get things done? If we are all presidents, how are we supposed to run a country? If we are all workers, how are we supposed to know what to do? We have to have proper process for managing an organization. By that, there should be:

1.       Job Design

2.       Departmentalization

3.       Delegation

4.       Span of Management

5.       Chain of Command

There should be job descriptions of every job position there is in an organization. The job description states the scope of tasks of the employee assigned the position and the salary. Like me, I am an Instructor. Based on my contract I am just to perform teaching with a monthly salary of (am I supposed to mention that here?). But, that was never followed. I do teaching, plus academic advising, plus evaluating graduating students, plus others. We can’t say no to the higher ups because we fear we might lose our jobs. Besides, the tasks are bearable and we benefit from some of it too. But then again they deduct tax from our salary which from what I know is a non-taxable amount.

After having positions couple with job descriptions, there should be departmentalization. Each department is composed of employees whose knowledge and skills are coherent. Back in 2004, the Computer Science, Information Management (now Information Systems), Computer Engineering and Electronics and Communications Engineering were under one department named Computing. But after 5 years chairman and the members of the faculty saw the need to divide the department because of major differences so that it’ll be easier to manage. It was then divided into 3 departments namely Computer Science and Information Systems (DCSIS), Computer Engineering (DCpE), and Electronics and Communications Engineering (DECE) each has its own chairman and member faculties. Having divided the one large department made it easier for the chairman since all share the same fields of interest for their respective departments.

After departmentalizing, delegation takes place. Our chairman assigned faculties for the position of Secretary, Treasurer, Research Coordinator, Statistician and Technical Editors (for Thesis and Capstone Projects) and Academic Advisers (one per year level and section). This is important because he can’t do all of these things by himself considering the number of students in the department. Though not part of our job description, we adhere. It’s for the sake of the students anyway.

Every position has a scope. The power we have inherent to our positions has limits. The Dean of the college delegates the chairmen to take responsibility of their own departments. Departments in the college have no control over another. Faculty members of other departments have no say over things decided for another department unless his idea is solicited. Only the dean can intervene. Within departments, member faculties do what the chairman asks so long as it’s for the department and the college and the university.

In every organization, there is always an Organizational Structure. This structure presents the flow of authority from the highest rank down. We call the flow chain of command. In our university, if a parent has a concern, they don’t directly go to the president. The flow is, go to the department or college. If the concern is solved at department or college level then good, but if not, only then can the parents go to the higher ups. For example, if a student complains that the teacher gave him a wrong grade, a letter for change of grade must be done. But though the Registrar has all the records of grades, they have no authority to change the grade unless they are told so. A letter for change of grade has to be made by the instructor, it has to be approved by the department chairman, and then it has to be indorsed by the dean to the Vice President for academic Affairs. If the VPAA approves the letter, it will be forwarded to the Registrar’s Office and the college evaluator will change the grade. It is always good to know where to go if you have a concern. It saves time and effort with a university so big. But sometimes, it happens that a concern is treated like a ball being passed on from one office to another. It happened once where one issue was taken directly to the president without consulting the college concerned. Some could really bypass the chain of command especially if they are powerful enough. I wish I could hang a sign that says:

 “Abide by the rules and follow the process”. By the Management.