www.generationnext.

in

Understanding ISO 9001:2015

5.3 Organizational roles, responsibilities and authorities
Before we begin, lets clarify some definitions:
Role: is the defined or expected behavior associated with a
particular position, function or status in an organization.
Responsibility : The duty, obligation and accountability for the
performance of assigned duties, tasks and activities.
Authority : The power or right to control, command, issue orders,
make decisions, assign resources, delegate, and ensure compliance
to company policies and practices.
Accountability means taking responsibility for and accepting the
consequences of your actions in achieving results and proving it to
others (see our discussion under clause 5.1.1a).
Top management must establish the organizational
framework necessary to deploy the QMS. It must define the
structure, hierarchy and lines of reporting. Additionally, (perhaps,
through the assistance of the Human Resources function), it must
ensure that the duties, roles, responsibilities and authority of
all personnel are defined and communicated. All personnel must be
clear on their duties, responsibilities and authority in meeting
customer and regulatory requirements.
Although this version of the ISO 9001 standard does not specifically
require any documentation, clause 4.4.2 does require that to the
extent necessary, the organization must maintain documents and
records to support the QMS.
Organization charts, job descriptions, procedures, work instructions,
responsibility matrices, etc, are typically some of the many ways
that top management may use to define and document its
organizational framework and associated duties,
roles, responsibilities and authority
These must be communicated and deployed, as applicable,
throughout the organization. Orientation packages; quality and
operator manuals, appointment postings; sign-off on job
descriptions; job training on procedures and work instructions, etc,
are some of the many ways to accomplish this.
The organization structure and lines of reporting; responsibility and
authority of managerial functions and departments must be
established by top management (business planning) and the
India: C 905 Krishna Appra Saphire, Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram. Ghaziabad. UP. India
1 .No. 16, First Floor, 70 HK Bld, Y M Road, Masjid Bunder, West Mumbai, India
UAE: Spark International FZE, PO Box 16111, RAK FTZ, RAK-UAE.
Algeria: No: 2 Etage Batimet Billayat, Cite Eyalarsa, SETIF, ALGERIA.
 www.generationnext.in

responsibilities and authorities for the rest of the organization may

be established by the HR function working with various process
owners and department heads. Again, this would depend on the
size, complexity and culture of the organization.
The specific QMS activities themselves that top management must
assign responsibilities and authorities for are covered in detail in
other parts of this ISO 9001 standard. In this clause, we are only
concerned with top managements role in assigning them.
In the 2008 version of this standard, the Management
Representative (MR) was assigned specific responsibilities and
authority for overseeing the implementation, maintenance and
improvement of the QMS and reporting on QMS performance to top
management. This MR function could be assigned to any individual
at the managerial level who had a reasonable grasp of the ISO 9001
standard and people skills in promoting and implementing the QMS.
In this version there is no such requirement. The expectation is that
some companies will continue to maintain the MR function, while
others may choose to reassign the responsibility for the various
QMS activities indicated by clause 5.3a-e.

India: C 905 Krishna Appra Saphire, Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram. Ghaziabad. UP. India
2 .No. 16, First Floor, 70 HK Bld, Y M Road, Masjid Bunder, West Mumbai, India
UAE: Spark International FZE, PO Box 16111, RAK FTZ, RAK-UAE.
Algeria: No: 2 Etage Batimet Billayat, Cite Eyalarsa, SETIF, ALGERIA.