Institutional Authority and Expert Authority

Institutional authority

‘The institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of the institution’.

- It is acquired, exercised and defined within institutions.

- It is given to individuals to perform their institutional duties assigned within  the organization. There is not always a perfect match between the authority granted and the qualifications needed to exercise it.

Expert authority

‘The possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to perform some task or to give sound advice’.

Engineers may have expert authority but their institutional authority, may only be, to provide management with analysis of possible ways to perform a technical task, after which they are restricted to following management’s directive about which  option to pursue. In  large companies, engineers, advisors and consultants in staff function carry expert authority, while institutional authority is vested only with line managers.