Authority is a major management tool made imperative by the moment society decides to combine effort in order to achieve given objective. It is an instrument with which organization resources are harnessed, controlled and directed towards the achievement of defined goals. This study analyses, in general, various theories of organization authority; and in particular, the Acceptance Theory of Authority which proposes on one hand, that the manager in exercise of authority has to be a person of selflessness, integrity and moral uprightness, and on the other hand, that the efficiency of an order which the manager gives is rather determined by the person receiving the order and not the manager that gives it. The study seeks to find out the degree to which this view of authority is applicable in some Nigeria organizations. The data used in the study is primary, obtained from 90 respondents drawn from four big business organizations. They were required to indicate the degree to which they believe in the applicability of authority from the point of view of Acceptance Theory in their respective organizations. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and F-distribution statistics were employed in the data analysis and hypothesis testing, respectively. The result of the test does not indicate that Acceptance Theory of Authority is in vogue in Nigeria organizations. This paper recommends, firstly, the inclusion of the “Functions of the Executive” in the curriculum of management studies in our universities to afford understanding of the great ideas portrayed in the work about authority; secondly, practicing managers should know, embrace and apply Acceptance Theory of Authority  in their organizations as a tool for eliciting best performance from their employees.

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