Instructions for delegating roles and tasks in a department or equivalent

Summary of the instructions

The President´s decision-making procedures and delegation rules regulate, amongst other provisions, that the Heads of department are responsible for all departmental activities at Karolinska Institutet (KI). In order to assist the departments and other operational units in their efforts concerning the work environment, environment and sustainable development, and security/safety; tasks relating to these areas may be delegated. Certain functions must be in place in all KI entities including the departments, the Professional Services, and the university library, among others. Other roles are linked to particular/specific areas and entities (e.g. laboratory environments) and are therefore relevant to KI’s core operations rather than its support roles and administration. 

This document contains instructions for departments or the equivalent on the establishment of:  

• organisational plans with decision-making procedures and delegation rules, 
• delegation of decision-making and authorisation rights, 
• delegation and retracting work assignments. 

Role descriptions, templates and forms can be found in a separate appendix to this document. In this document, Head of department shall be read to mean Head of department or the equivalent, and department to mean department or the equivalent. Unless otherwise delegated, the Head of department is responsible for the tasks included in his/her role description. The instructions provided herein are based on relevant statutes or KI’s internal steering documents. Laws, regulations, and provisions are binding and describe in more or less detail the prevailing requirements relating to a certain area or issue. Instructions describe a particular method of or recommendations for handling a specific case, performing an activity, or completing a process. In certain cases, there are requirements in place for documented procedures, such as management systems or ISO standards.