The responsibility that one is assigned as a result of one's job or office. Unfortunately, official responsibilities might require one to behave unethically -- Still, "it was my job" might be a reason, but it is not a valid excuse for immoral behavior. However, even when the requirements of an official responsibility are ethically acceptable, the concept of an official responsibility functions differently from moral responsibility. Official responsibility resembles moral responsibility in generating prescriptions for conduct - duties, or at least statements about what someone "ought" to do. As philosopher John Ladd points out, moral and official responsibility differ in at least two respects: First, official responsibilities are exclusionary - if one person has a particular official responsibility, another person does not (unless, of course, it was part of the job description of both). Second, official responsibilities, together with whatever rights, duties and requirements for accountability attend them, are all alienable (see rights) - they can be given to or taken over by someone else. In contrast, if one has a moral responsibility to inform the public about some matter, then even if one is in the position to delegate that responsibility to someone else, one still must see that the responsibility is fulfilled, because one does not get rid of a moral responsibility by giving it to someone else.

This definition is in context to Ethics. See more contextual defintions for Responsibility, Official.