Delegation

This purpose of this paper is to explain how delegation could be used more effectively in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling within an organization. Delegation has many definitions, but very simply put it means letting go of control. Out of all of the decisions managers have to make, delegating is one of the hardest decisions to make.

By definition delegation is the downward transfer of formal authority from superior to subordinate. The employee is empowered to act for the supervisor, while the supervisor remains accountable for the outcome. Delegation of authority is a person-to-person relationship requiring trust, commitment, and contracting between the supervisor and the employee. The supervisor assists in developing employees in order to strengthen the organization. He or she gives up the authority to make decisions that are best made by subordinates. This means that the supervisor allows subordinates the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. He or she does not supervise subordinates' decision-making, but allows them the opportunity to develop their own skills. The supervisor lets subordinates know that he or she is willing to help, but not willing to do their jobs for them, (1998).

There is much reasoning and judgment that takes place before delegating a task to someone. Managers have to go through a decision-making process before delegating.. The First decision a manager has to makes is to decide which person to delegate a given task to; the person that they think would do the job as good as they would do. It is obvious to anyone that no matter how well a task is explained the job will be done differently. Second, if delegation is done right it can have many benefits that far outweigh the downside. The downside of delegation is that it creates worrisome stress and anxiety. For example, the person might not know what to do and weigh the manager down with questions or the manager will have to look over the employees shoulder, both of which are time consuming. The good side of delegation is that it frees up time for the manager to handle other more difficult tasks. It strengthens employees skills and brings new ideas to the organization.

Planning is difficult to delegate because it is best to have one person do the planning because once many people start making plans it confuses things, it makes it confusing for everyone involved, no one knows who is in charge. The only way to delegate planning in an organization with many divisions is to have the person in charge of that particular division do their own planning, which makes more sense. When planning with a subordinate is important to give that person as much information as possible and the right tools to do the job.

Depending on how well one planned and delegated tasks to key employees then it is up to theses employees to maintain and organize their work detail. The person that is delegated a task should be just as organized as the person in charge or it will erupt into chaos. The person that does the planning can theoretically delegate the next step of organizing. It is best because the person that organizes can lead and control. Organizing is basically taking the plans and executing them. A manager has to either organize a task for the person they are delegating it to or discuss how the task will be organized with the employee before committing to the task.

A leader has to delegate a clear mission and goal to their employees in order to satisfy the job requirements. Leading is much different than planning and organizing because it deals more with motivating employee’s to complete a task. This is where management becomes difficult because delegating someone to lead other people is not easy. It takes a special skill to lead. Some expect others to do what they say just because they are their supervisor. One has to gain respect from their employees;