In the US, or in any particular states therein, are there rules requiring large organizations (I’m thinking particularly of Universities) to have explicit, written documentation as to which offices within the organizational structure hold which powers and responsibilities?
I mean it’s a good idea of course, but my question is, is there a rule requiring such documents?
If so, are they required to be available to the public? To employees?
Universities in the US typically have what is called a “charter” that are the founding documents of the school, similar to a constitution. These documents can be amended over time. I would expect that all public Universities would have their charters publicly available. Private institutions would not be required to do so, but may have them publicly available.
Other than Universities, other organizations like corporations would have “articles of incorporation” that are filed with the respective state licensing boards, etc.
No.
Under Delaware Corporation Code (60% of fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware), a corporation is required to have bylaws which identifies the officers and their duties. But that tends to be vague, and certainly doesn’t extend to the entire org chart.
Public corporations are required by the SEC to make their bylaws public. Here are the bylaws for DuPont, for example (pdf)
Many universities are public institutions, so their bylaws and organization would be a matter of public record. (The Ohio State University, for example)
Not sure if private colleges are required to do the same, but I checked a few and found that it seems to be a universal practice. Here are the bylaws from St John Fisher College, a small school in my hometown, and from Cornell University. (pdf)
I note with amusement that Cornell requires that “the eldest lineal descendant of Ezra Cornell shall be a trustee for his or her life.”
In general, a charter or constitution of an organisation might prescribe:
(1) the board of directors (or equivalent);
(2) the chair of the board of directors;
(3) the chief executive officer (whatever their title might be).
I doubt if they’d detail the structure below that.
I’d tend to agree. From the corporate side, I can tell you from personal experience that reorganizing the company’s structure is a frequent occurrence; if the structure at anything below the board and C-suite was prescribed by the organization’s constitution or charter, it’d require re-writing that document on a yearly basis (if not more often), which simply doesn’t happen.