Of the two things, I choose RESPONSIBILITY because as a selfless and

dedicated person, I find responsibility as something that would connect me to other

people and become one with them; not being above or superior to them. In contrast,
when we speak about AUTHORITY, I always associate this to power or supremacy
hence I cannot be someone who is authoritative since my personality doesn’t show the
qualities of being authoritative such as being aggressive and confident of commanding
others. While some may be good in authority because of their qualities like our political
leaders, I still believe that there is still responsibility in there. In other words,
responsibility is heavier than authority because there is always responsibility in
authority so that every task is executed correctly but not all the time authority is present
in being responsible. However, the most decent and fair thing to do is to achieve a
balance between these two. The balance between authority and responsibility is an
important component of all sorts of human relationship.
Let’s take for example one common observation I see in a classroom setting
where there is an assigned leader per group. These leaders possess authority because
without doing so, there is no compliance. Without compliance, goals will not be realized.
Hence, responsibility is present here because the leader must ensure that his or her
members comply with the tasks he or she assigned to them in order to achieve the
desired output/s. For instance, there is leader A and leader B. Leader A is a bossy type
and always wants to command and dictate his members by being in complete control of
everything. He doesn’t consider the opinions and suggestions of his members. For
leader A, being responsible is being able to delegate the tasks well to his members and
so long as these are accomplished by them, then he already thinks that he is effective.
Leader B, on the other hand, also wants to inflict discipline among his subordinates but
in doing so, he works with his members, accompany and guide them in every step in the
way while being open to the opinions of others because he believes that responsibility
doesn’t stop even after all tasks are being assigned. The example mentioned is an
example that shows responsibility as being part of authority because it is the
consequence of the power given while authority is not always present in responsibility
because not all people perceive responsibility as something that should be done with
authority or power.
Authority is necessary but it should be used well and not abused. It must be
exercised without the goal of becoming superior to others. Meanwhile, responsibility
allows the accomplishment of objectives to run smoothly because every member
including the leader himself is doing his or her part. Authority without responsibility
results in confusion, wasted efforts and at worse, abused power. This is the reason why
responsibility must be practiced at all times whether you are in power or not. Above all,
it must be noted that in order to acquire the best results, there must be a balance
between these two because responsibility without authority would also destroy any
progress because of the absence of direction. Hence, it is possible to not choose
between the two because while they are different, putting them together is not even bad
at all.