Delegation means conferring, entrusting or allocating a particular assignment to a person based on realistic assessment of the latter’s abilities and motivation.
Delegation as a tool for employee development
Delegation means conferring,
entrusting or allocating a particular assignment to a person based on realistic
assessment of the latter’s abilities and motivation. It is not merely passing
off any job, but to let some one take over the control of what a manager
continues to be responsible for. Delegation is said to have taken place when a
superior gives a subordinate the discretion to make decisions and the
responsibility for completion of specific activities. Authority, responsibility
and accountability are considered as the three limbs of effective delegation
that should be matching and on par in magnitude with each other. Delegation
could simultaneously be enabling, energizing as well as empowering to people.
Theoretical Foundations of Delegation
The classical principle of
delegation states that decisions should be made at the lowest organization
level.. Management By Exception (MBE) involves delegation. It hints at
Frederick W Taylor’s exception principle, which stated that managers should
control by giving major attention mainly to the exceptional cases and
situations. Larry Greiner’s model of life cycle of an organization includes a
period in which the growth happens through delegation after a highly directive
top management evokes resentment and cry for autonomy among the rank and file
employees in the organization.
The life cycle theory of
leadership developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard focuses on the
maturity of the followers as a contingency variable affecting the style of
leadership and the possibility of delegation by a leader. According to this
viewpoint, the extent to which a leader adopts a delegating style, which
involves low degrees of consideration for task as well as for people, depends
on both the job maturity and psychological maturity of the members of any work
group. The maturity is gauged by the extent to which they are both able and
willing to be accountable for their responsibility towards task performance and
require little guidance and direction. Degree of delegation could be gradually
increased to suit the progress of an employee.
A manager who delegates authority
does not permanently dispose of it, but continues to share the responsibility
for completion of the task. Delegated authority therefore can always be
regained. Delegation could be general or specific, in oral or written form.
Delegation is essential for proper performances, as no person can perform all
the work by himself. Besides reducing the burden of higher-level managers and
thereby enabling them to concentrate on more important matters, delegation improves
quality of decisions, by moving the decision-making closest to the scene of
activity.
Delegation improves motivation,
initiative and creativity and also helps out in the development of managers in
the junior echelons of organizations by exposing them adequately towards
complex decision-making. Whatever might be the beneficial outcomes of
delegating, there are common barriers to delegation. Reluctance to part with
power and over-confidence of the supervisors and a belief that no one else can
do the task better than them, are a few of the barriers at the level of the
delegating administrator. It takes courage to delegate because delegation does
not absolve one from the ultimate responsibility. Often it is seen that
responsibility is feared as much as authority is sought after.
At the recipient’s level, the
barriers could be due to inequitable distribution of work and the resultant
overburden, or fear of failure, fear of premature display of inadequacies of
oneself, lack or trust in the motives behind delegation, or merely a lack of
motivation or perceived incompetence on the part of the person who has to
fulfill the requirements in terms of the delegated tasks. According to Mishra,
M.N. (2001), “delegation would be successful where a wide range of people are
involved, where the work provides intrinsic job satisfaction, the work group
members accept the management’s objectives, the employee-employer relations are
harmonious, consistency and coordination are prevalent, and where technology
permits individual autonomy and subordinates welcome responsibility.”
Delegation would be possible only
if the higher authority possesses willingness to trust the subordinates and to
allow them to make mistakes and learn from the process. If a manager clearly
delegates authority to undertake a well-defined task, a properly trained
subordinate can get it done with a minimum of the supervisor’s time, attention
and involvement. In the context of delegation, managers need to accept that
there are several ways to complete a job and that their own ways of solving them are not necessarily those that
their subordinates would choose. Superiors could be induced to delegate more by
making them part of the team’s performance rather than their own. Where there
is a system of appraisal of the superiors by the subordinates, a parameter for
appraisal should the formers’ inclination to help the latter through delegation
and empowerment.
The practice of empowering and
delegation poses a challenge to managers and employees alike and demands close
attention to the terms of their working relationships. Delegation has to be
preceded by careful planning about what tasks could be delegated and in what
sequence. Decisions on who should get the assignment should be based on their
workload and competence. People should be given sufficient resources for
carrying out the delegated task. Once delegation begins, the everyday jobs of
the junior employees should be monitored and assisted, till a confidence level
is built reasonably between the person in charge and the subordinate.
Tags : Human Resources Management - Employee Empowerment & Seperations
Last 30 days 497 views