Management: Theory, Practice, and Application

Delegation Paper

Jerrell Clayton

MGT/330

Management: Theory, Practice, and Application

Kathryn Hayman

June 15, 2005

Delegation Paper

According to Batman and Snell (2004), delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to a subordinate at a lower level requiring that the subordinate reports back to their manager the results, positive or negative. Within my professional career I have experienced several management styles. With regard to the subject matter of delegation, I have been lead by an experienced, effective, and efficient manager that utilized delegation and the functions of management while employed with Pitney Bowes Management Services (PBMS).

The Customer Service Manager (CSM), Ebonie Kelley, Site Manager at McDermott, Will and Emory, was accountable for a team of 32. Of the 32 team members, six were apart of the management team. Her management team was a diverse mix of age, race, gender, and ethics. As the site manager, she is accountable for an enormous amount of responsibilities, but budget, site policies, and staff procedures were the bulk of these responsibilities. Organizing a management team was an ideal choice for operating a customer service based operation. She understood that maintaining the same level of efficiency without actually doing the bulk of the work was the goal she wanted to achieve. Her team consisted of two team leads (TL), one for the mail department and one for reprographics, and four lead site representatives (LSR), three for mail and one for reprographics.

As the CSM, she delegated responsibilities, authority, and accountability for daily procedures, assignments, projects, and other tasks that she would normally be responsible for, to her TL’s. She gave these two complete responsibility and authority to act in her position dealing with site policies. Delegating these responsibilities gave them complete accountability for the actions of the other 30 team members, and this way she is able to do other things that she had been lacking on because of her workload, such as organizational development. This plan of delegation would train the TL’s to one day assume a position as CSM. Giving the TL’s responsibilities and the authority that pertained to these policies and processes, gave them the ability to choose their LSR’s. . The LSR reports to the TL the information that happens in the different departments that exist. The LSR is responsible for the daily operations of non-management staff, such as assigned task, covering breaks, etc.

Ms. Kelley used her delegation power to set up a chain of command. Having this system in place insures all of the responsibilities she is accountable for are cover. Someone is responsible for certain responsibilities, as well as the accountable for them. She is able to have management meetings once a week to retain feedback from her management team; site meetings