Exploring Managers' Lived Experience of the Fit between Authority and Responsibility: A Phenomenological Study in the Social Security Organization

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Zahra Nasrolahie ¹

masoud Bastami ²

Roya Shakeri ²

¹ گروه مدیریت دولتی، واحد سنندج، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، سنندج، ایران

² Department of Public Management, Sa.c., Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/tmj.2026.98806.1845

Abstract

This exploratory study sought to discover how managers in the Social Security Organization experience the fit between authority and responsibility and to explain its underlying meaning structures. A qualitative design within an interpretive paradigm and Husserlian descriptive phenomenology was used. Seventeen top-, middle-, and operational-level managers were selected through purposive criterion-based sampling until data saturation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi’s (1978) seven-step method. Trustworthiness was established using Guba and Lincoln’s (1985) four criteria. The findings showed that authority–responsibility fit is experienced as the practical alignment of accountability for results with the actual capacity to decide and act. When responsibilities exceeded effective authority, managers reported constrained decision-making, accountability anxiety, weakened managerial identity, and reduction of the managerial role to routine implementation. The meaning structures of this experience comprised three interrelated dimensions: financial and human resources, knowledge and information, and time and strategy. The essence of the phenomenon was therefore formulated as a dynamic balance between accountability and capability for action within these three organizational structures.

Keywords

Lived Experience

Descriptive Phenomenology

Authority-Responsibility Fit

Managers

Social Security Organization

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