Delegation of authority

Delegation of authority
See also
Principles of delegation Front line management Distribution of decision-making powers Management by delegation Process analysis Management functions Lewin, Lippitt and White - basic styles of management Management by objectives steps Achievement oriented leadership

Delegation of authority belongs to the basic stages in development of an organization. It can be defined as the handing of power to others. It is the transmission of a task to specific employees, along with powers and responsibilities. In addition, the delegation should be associated with the provision of the support and care to that employees along with tools needed to achieve objectives, and not only from the formal scheduling of tasks and a cool assessment of the results. The theory clearly specifies which tasks should be delegated, and which should not be deleted. Tasks with smaller weight, routine but urgent manager can delegate with certainty. Similarly, tasks falling within the scope of specialists, involving detailed and preparatory work. Strategic tasks of the momentous consequences for the company, activities at high risk or sensitive should not be delegated. The distribution of tasks allows managers to offload supervisors from repetitive simple work. On the other hand, it can led to the unnecessary bureaucracy.

Delegation of authority application

Often managers give up delegating for fear of loss of control on the task or fearing potential competition from lower-ranking employee. What's more, managers continue to come out with the assumption that they would do the job better and faster. In addition, the lack of time to control and giving instructions to an employee might be by a serious barrier.

Of course, management by delegation will depend on the personality of the superior (often manager who recently received a promotion forgo delegation). However, most managers delegates tasks to best qualified employees, with a view to their development; employees whose powers we want to confront with reality or which we want to test.

Effective delegation of authority may be done in 5 stages:

1. Prepare the employee.
2. Explanation of task (purpose).
3. Define how work should be performed.
4. Order to repeat the described procedure for the execution of a task with a possible correction of errors.
5. Assignment of an employee to perform work and monitoring and evaluating results.

The key to delegate authority, powers and tasks is trust. Trust along with the decision transfer is the key difference between a delegation and regular issue of commands.

See also:

• Principles of delegation

References

• Moffett, J. D., & Sloman, M. S. (1991). Delegation of authority. Integrated Network Management II, 595-606.
• Tammens, E. (2012). Delegation of authority.
•  Riyanto, Y. (2000). Essays on the internal and external delegation of authority in firms.
• Aghion, P., & Tirole, J. (1997). Formal and real authority in organizations. Journal of political economy, 1-29.
• Cohen, E. G., Lotan, R. A., & Holthuis, N. (1995). Talking and working together. In Restructuring Schools (p. 157-174). Springer US.