Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Version: 1.0
Shaveta Arora
14th November 2004
Management
Development Institute
Table of Contents i
1 Executive Summary 1
2 Introduction 2
2.1 Traditional Conceptions for Delegation 3
2.2 Delegation & Empowerment 3
2.3 Difference between various practices 4
2.4 AAR: Aspects of Delegation 9
3 Deciding to Delegate 12
4 Barriers in Effective Delegation 13
4.1 ”I Can Do It Better Myself” 13
4.2 Inability to give Instructions 13
4.3 Bias 13
4.4 Poor Controls and Follow-Up 13
4.5 Fear of Being Shown-Up 13
4.6 Uncertainty of Authority 14
4.7 The Guilt Drive 14
4.8 Unwillingness or Give-Up Activities 14
4.9 Impatience 14
5 Components of Delegation 16
5.1 Goal Setting 16
5.2 Communication 16
5.3 Motivation 16
5.4 Supervision 16
5.5 Evaluation 16
6 Case Study: NWT Health and Social Services System’s Accountability Framework, Ottawa,
Canada 17
7 Conclusion 21
8 References 22
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Version: 1.0 Prepared by Shaveta Arora for MDI
14thNovember, 2004 i
1 Executive Summary
Managers have many jobs and duties that ask for skills like planning,
goal execution, employee coaching, counselling, supervision etc. A
manager’s prime goal unarguably remains to be – maximizing
productivity and efficiency. A manager needs to recognise that this
cannot be done by himself or herself alone. They are given the task of
devising & implementing ways to make things run smoothly.
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2 Introduction
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Delegation is a powerful tool which can improve system’s performance
by many folds, but only when deployed properly. There are prevailing
false notions that shroud delegation in negative connotation. Let us first
understand the traditional conceptions of delegation and then arrive at
logical definitions.
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o Downward: From a manager to a staff member.
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Practice Phase The Subordinate(s) Group
Superior Size
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Self- 2 - Manage Many
managing themselves,
team make decisions,
and perform
them
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We can see from the following exhibit how Delegation differs from
PDM* in the context of various variables mentioned below:
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Category Variable PDM* Delegation
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Subordinate Sex Women Men
characteristics
o Authority of position
o Authority of competence
o Authority of personality
o Authority of character
(For the sake of brevity & maintaining scope, the paper does not
intend to go into details of all these.) Some would disagree on
whether authority can be delegated; it can be transferred for the
delegated project within a limited context. Sufficient authority
should be transferred to the delegates to enable them to command
the resources necessary to assure that results meet the delegator’s
objectives and schedule, even this means expanding the
delegatees’ authority during the given task.
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Contrary to what many managers believe, the delegator retains
ultimate responsibility for the successful completion of a task.
Managers have final control over the situation, supervising it as
you see fit. The delegate, however, is responsible for meeting
specific, intermediate goals of the project.
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3 Deciding to Delegate
The key question one has to ask before delegating power is that
weather the task should be retained or delegated. We can understand
this concept from the old idea carrying load. Doing work is like people
carrying some loads on them. There are some things that people not
only can, but also should carry upon themselves. They might not be
ready or willing to carry the loads, but they need to do it anyway,
because it is their responsibility and the most effective action to take.
Then there is some type of work which people just can’t handle by
themselves. This is the load which one person can not bear alone. This
extra load can be called as Burden. People can’t do these tasks alone,
and it is not fair or reasonable to ask them to carry this burden. They
need assistance to carry this extra burden. So we need to understand
that is the given work a load or a burden on the other. The burden
needs to be acquired, and distributed, delegated evenly to make it sure
that no person is carrying a burden but only carrying his own load.
More clarity can be sought from Schwartz, Andrew E (1, 1995). Once
this difference between load and burden is clear, then the next
important point is to ask what tasks to delegate and to whom to
delegate. One must ask these important questions before delegating:
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4 Barriers in Effective Delegation
4.1 ”I Can Do It Better Myself”
4.3 Bias
The supervisor must have good control over the work and insist that
the subordinates follow certain minimum standard procedures. Or he
himself should design such a system because just doubting whether he
would be able to get the job well done, he’ll be putting himself in a
position of an incompetent delegator.
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Any supervisor who is reluctant to delegate work to a subordinate
through a fear that the he’ll outshine her not only does not
demonstrate good managerial judgement, but also probably should not
even consider being a boss for long.
Many supervisors fail to delegate work because they’re not sure that
they’ve the authority to make such assignments. Supervisors who
argue that they don’t have the authority to assign certain jobs to
certain individuals are shying away from their responsibilities.
4.9 Impatience
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5 Components of Delegation
Delegation can be thought of as a process that consists of five basic
components -
5.2 Communication
5.3 Motivation
5.4 Supervision
5.5 Evaluation
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6 Case Study: NWT Health and Social
Services System’s Accountability Framework, Ottawa,
Canada
While Accountability and responsibility are related to each other, they
are not the same. Responsibility carries an obligation to take action;
accountability carries an obligation to report the results of taking
action. These models were successfully implemented as “The
Accountability Framework” of National Health & Social Services System,
Canada. This framework manages the delegation of responsibility
throughout the system, and manages the accountability for results from
those responsible for providing health and social services. For more
information see reference 8.5.
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7 Conclusion
After going through various view points about delegation, we can
conclude that delegation is not a simple skill. However with
Planning
Persistence
Practice
One can reap the full benefits of delegation. Delegation not only
bolsters productivity, it also enhances job satisfaction, teamwork, and
employee’s skills. Effective delegation results in tasks being completed
by the most appropriate person and in the most efficient manner
possible.
The way work responsibility is assigned varies with the different levels
in the organization and according to the need of the work being
supervised; the behavioural principles required for success in
delegation are the same at all levels. Unfortunately people expect
different things from different individuals, at different levels in the
organization; requirements for success as an executive are different
from the requirements for success as highly competent technician.
Whatever the nature of the individual supervisors’ delegation skills, one
thing must be made very clear; in plying the skill of delegation, the
individual must know what her/his own aspirations are in respect to
getting results through other people.
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8 References
The following references were used in the study and the author has
tried to mention at relevant places about the same in the document.
Various Authors.
http://www.aresearchguide.com/. Internet: NA, 2003
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