Delegation in an Air Force Squadron

Delegation in an Air Force Squadron

The United States military branches are unique in the style of management used on a day to day basis. They are not yet run as a normal business would be. In the recent past, the Air Force has begun assimilating certain aspects of big business in order to lead successfully into the next and future generations. On a smaller scale, Air Force Squadrons are set up to require little or no outside assistance from other organizations and management positions are defined by position, not necessarily rank.

The most senior position in a Squadron is the Commander, whose rank is not always the highest, and is responsible for the entire group of people and its mission. In order to achieve any amount of success, the Commander relies on everyone in the Squadron to perform his function to the best of his ability, and sometimes taking on others responsibilities when the situation demands. Directly below the Commander, at least four groups of people, called Flights, are controlled by a Flight Commander and Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO). These Flight Commanders and SNCO’s then rely on those in each work center, or division, to perform their functions and only have to report in daily, weekly, or monthly as required. Each work center has a Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC), and each shift has a supervisor.

Although the Commander (CC) is ultimately responsible for every aspect of the Squadron, very few of those functions are actually performed by that position. Delegation is defined by Bateman & Snell (2007) as being the “assignment of new or additional responsibilities to a subordinate” (p. 302). Once the CC is assigned a mission, he will delegate it to the Flight that is best suited to fulfill it. That does not always guarantee that the assignment is not delegated further down. Most tasks are performed by the lowest ranking members of a Squadron, overseen by those in his immediate chain of command, reported to those in the Flight on to the CC. Once the Commander is satisfied the mission has been accomplished as assigned, he will report completion to those senior to him.

In the planning function, delegation from the CC is sometimes not as evident as the other three functions of management because he is briefed on each level of completion for reporting purposes. The CC is normally able to respond to questions about projects as though he was there every step of the way. Once a project has been assigned, unless it’s highly visible, the Commander will probably not be a part of the planning function. This type of delegation also empowers the project team and gives the authority to act as needed.

Organization is primarily set up and directions provided to the Commander in the Squadron by those at Air Force level. The CC can change very little concerning how the organization is set up. This direction as a whole is beneficial so that there is uniformity to each Squadron.

A Squadron Commander has the unique responsibility to lead his organization through daily requirements, common missions that require little out of the ordinary, and more frequently in today’s Air Force; combat. It is the Commanders