delegation

Examples of delegation in the following topics:

• Fulfilling the Organizing Function

  • Through delegation, managers transfer authority and responsibility to their subordinates.
  • Organizations today tend to encourage delegation from the highest to lowest possible levels.
  • Delegation can improve flexibility to meet customers' needs and to adapt to competitive environments.
  • Managers may find delegation difficult, since control over the task assigned (and eventual outcome) is relinquished.
  • Effective chains of command must allow for flexibility and efficient delegation.

• The Importance of Leverage

  • This half of the managerial responsibilities falls largely within the decision-making realm, which correlates to a manager's ability to organize tasks and delegate these tasks effectively to gain leverage.
  • The concept of delegation enables managers to minimize their own time commitment to specific elements of a process, as well as improve quality and efficiency through the use of specialists (managers are typically generalists).
  • Delegation therefore allows managers to optimize team structures and skill-set distributions to allow for synergy in operations.
  • Delegation sounds easy on paper, but it requires a number of intrinsic skills such as communication, organization, multitasking, and the ability to "zoom out" and observe the bigger picture (and identify the critical components that enable it).

• Administrative Management: Fayol's Principles

  • Command (delegation): Managers must utilize authority and a thorough understanding of long-term goals to delegate tasks and make decisions for the betterment of the organization.

• Middle-Level Management

  • Leadership skills are also important in delegating tasks to first-level managers.
  • Note that middle management is tasked with (1) their tier of technical skills, i.e. information management systems, as well as (2) communication of system efficacy upward to senior managers and (3) delegating tasks downward to workers.

• Considering the Organizational Life Cycle

  • This is where functional or divisional strategies may begin to emerge, enabling managers to build teams and delegate tasks.

• Employee Involvement in Decision Making

  • By delegating a decision to a group, an organization can make effective use of the skills and knowledge of its employees.

• The Manager's Role in Group Decisions

  • Decisions are often delegated to groups when members have the experience and information needed to arrive at the appropriate choice.

• What is Organizational Behavior?

  • Understanding not only how to delegate tasks and organize resources but also how to analyze behavior and motivate productivity is critical for success in management.

• Group Conflict as a Barrier to Decision Making

  • Delegating key decision making to groups, teams, or committees occurs often within organizations.

• Decentralizing Responsibility

  • In a decentralized organization, the top executives delegate much of their decision making authority to lower tiers of the organizational structure.