# Who Owns Organizational Decision-Making Policies By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-11-06 Within most organizations, accountability and ownership are critical and often clearly defined. Marketing owns marketing, Sales owns sales, and Accounting owns accounting. These are easy, but what about business functions that operate across team and functional boundaries? For example, does Human Resources (HR) own people management, or are they simply the adjudicators and policymakers? Rarely does HR manage people, as this is the manager's job. The same can be said for Information Technology (IT). IT may administer the technology, but the accountability of an employee's laptop is with the employee. Whenever these "support" functions emerge, the lines of accountability and ownership get blurry. In many ways, this blurriness is intentional. It is more cost-effective within many modern organizations to centralize some aspects of these functions, but it is also impractical to concentrate all of them. Things would not go well if someone in IT were the only one authorized to leverage one's laptop to do one's job. Creating a hybrid/blurry situation allows organizations to maintain control while minimizing liability. HR exists to manage payroll and provide policies while letting managers take the heat for any wrongdoing that might occur under their leadership. So, what accountability and ownership does Analytics have within an organization? Primarily, it is a support function like HR and IT, so its accountability and ownership is blurry. But what policies or processes does it manage or control? For most organizations, it manages and owns none of them. This is why Analytics as a profession within modern organization paradigms struggles to exist and make any difference. Analytics does not fit into the clear or blurry box of accountability and ownership. Analytics is some shiny blackhole that some organizations believe houses great insights, but the clock is ticking. So, it is worthwhile to ask: What should analytics be accountable for and own? The answer is clear: Decision-making policies and procedures. No one owns these, they are critical to the organization, and centralizing key components is cost-effective while minimizing liabilities. The trouble is many in power believe in themselves more than anything else. Look at what they've achieved. Who dares question their decision-making? I do, and so should the organization that cares about progress. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Organization]] [[Accountability]] [[Human Resources]] [[Technology]] [[Function]] [[Decision-making]] [[Ownership]]