SUBORDINATE OR JUNIOR OFFICERS 1. Duties and responsibilities.—The junior officer in a business is one who has charge of a single de partment and is responsible to the chief executive for its proper conduct. In a corporation all the officers are responsible to the board of directors, but the im mediate responsibility of each junior officer is to his chief. If he satisfies his chief, he has done all that the board of directors has a right to expect.
A junior officer may be sales manager, head of the production department, advertising manager, office manager, chief accountant, credit man, or chief of a division of a railroad. His employer delegates to him his own authority in a certain field and expects from him results which he himself might achieve were he personally doing the work. Just as all the generals, colonels, captains and lieutenants of an army are re sponsible to their immediate superiors and finally to the commander-in-chief or the general staff, so the junior officers in a business concern are responsible to their immediate superiors and ultimately to the chief executive and the board of directors.
A man is entitled to be regarded as a junior officer in a business when his work is so important that it requires the exercise of independent judgment, di cretion and executive ability. If he merely has charge of the routine work of a number of men, his duty being to see that their work is done on time and in the proper manner, he may be a head clerk, but he does not rank as a junior officer, for he has no busi ness responsibilities. He is merely a corporal in the industrial army.
The junior officer is a directive force in the busi ness. In his department Ile represents the chief. He directs the work of a number of men. If he makes mistakes the business suffers loss. If he directs his men wisely, the profits or good-will of the business are increased.
In this chapter we shall consider a few of the quali ties which junior officers must possess. Their work is exceedingly impoitant. It is from their ranks that the chief executives are chosen.
2. Training and experience.—It goes without say ing that the efficiency of a junior officer must depend laigely upon his mental ability, his education and his practical experience in business. He should, indeed, possess all the qualities of the efficient business man and have in him the making of a leader. If a man has not the quality of leadership, or if he has a weak body and poor digestion, or if his mind has not been trained to think clearly, or if he lacks ambition and will-power, he will be a failure as a junior officer.
It should also go without saying that a man is not fit to direct any department of a business unless he has first had experience in its work and is familiar with its problems as well as with its routine.
The accotmtant works up from the ranks of the bookkeepers; if he has in him the necessary qualities, the day may come when he will be made chief execu tive.
The sales manager must have had experience as a salesman; as a salesman he may have displayed only ordinary ability, but his experience in the field is a prerequisite, no matter how great or fine his man agerial quality.
The advertising manager may have no special ability as a writer of advertisements, and may not have been successful as a solicitor of advertising, but he should know all there is to kmow about advertising mediums and should Imow thoroly the business which it is his duty to advertise.
A physician gets his practical experience in the lab oratory and in the hospital. The junior officer must get his practical experience by the patient perform ance of routine labor. When a man has mastered the details of a business and has proved his quality, lie is eligible for the position of a junior officer.
3. Teani dogmatic, opinionated, obsti nate man does not make a good junior officer. He may have a good mind and a good education, and may know a great deal about the business, but he does not pull together with the others. He makes smooth team work impossible.