How does delegation impact organizational success

Respondents were asked what they see as the foundation of delegation to succeed. Most respondents identified trust as a foundation for delegation while some saw skills as the precursor for delegation.

Most of the respondents said that the premise of delegation is trust than knowing that someone can do the task. Being capable does not necessary mean that delegated tasks will be done as per the expectations.

Delegation is an extension of empowerment because it allows managers to hand over tasks to delegatees to showcase their skills and talent. Trust is the foundation of successful delegation supported by the systems in organisations to make delegation work. People must be empowered to deal with tasks to avoid constantly second-guessing themselves. Table 2. Respondents take on trust and relationships in delegation. Because all the respondents agreed that trust influences delegation, they were asked how they build on it to minimise bias delegation and build relationships.

Delegation is an art, and because it involves human beings, there are biases on how managers delegate. The list below shows what the respondents identified as the biases of delegation. The impact of bias delegation was renowned based on the responses. The list below summarises the impact of bias delegation. Overall, the respondents acknowledged that delegation biases have the potential to make delegation fail if not managed properly. To get a better perspective between delegation and the culture of delegation, the respondents were asked the following questions, 1 does delegation require a specific culture?

The responses were plausible based on the answers provided. Delegation needs a culture of sharing and empowering others. When people are willing to share, it enables delegation to succeed. Delegation requires a culture of maturity from the managers. The respondents acknowledged that managers have a way of doing things which creates a culture of its own. A flat support structure, a culture of openness and team cohesion supports delegation to succeed. Managers need to cultivate a culture that is embedded in the organisation.

Trust and team work are key in creating a culture of delegation. Conflict is a common theme in everyday life and delegation is not immune to it. The respondents were asked how they deal with conflict to enable delegation. Respondent 2 mentioned that as a manager is it important to guide and provide direction though ill-discipline and poor quality should be censored and be dealt with right away.

Conflicts arise because roles and responsibilities have not been clearly articulated. It is the responsibility of managers to pave a way for delegation to succeed by clearing the path for the delegated person to execute.

Respondent 4 shared similar views that managers need to focus on delivery of tasks and where there is evidence of conflicts, they must find ways of resolving them. Respondent 7 said that managers need to have clear terms of reference on what needs to be done with clear guidelines and scope.

Establishing ways of resolving conflict is very important. Mangers must have clear procedures on how to deal with conflicts and not duplicate effort as well as having clear boundaries and make sure the delegated person understands what needs to be done. Respondent 9 summed it and said that managers need to deal with conflict directly and look for root causes including personality clashes.

What is important it to make sure there is an interest between the work and the delegated person. In organisations, levels and hierarchy are created to have structure and enable flow of information.

Because delegation is handing over responsibility and giving authority to the next person, it is important to understand if organisational hierarchy and job design can impact delegation. The views from the respondents were split between having an impact and not having an impact. Responded 2 said that organisational hierarchy should not impact delegation.

Delegation must not be limited based on levels but on individuals who have the right aptitude and attitude to do the work. Some of the respondents said job design and organisation hierarchy can affect delegation. The hierarchy must be flexibility to enable delegation to work. If jobs are designed using a vertical structure with information flowing from the top to the bottom, delegation will suffer because only certain people can speak to certain individuals.

Respondent 8 concluded by saying that, because job design is linked to hierarchy, it can impact delegation because people are occupying positions which are linked to their jobs. Job design can impact delegation because of limited communication channels embedded in the design. This chapter presents the connections between the results, themes and sub-themes and the literature to get a better understanding of the successful factors of delegation.

The section has been grouped based on the themes of the results in chapter 4. The research results support the views of the respondents about the objectives of delegation as highlighted by different authors below.

It means taking ownership and bearing the consequences including non-delivery. Managers are always concerned with non-delivery because delegation does not mean they are no longer accountable. Delegation passes on the responsibility of task but not the outcome Whitman, Respondent 2 and 6 mentioned being accountable as the ceiling to delegation. Due to this complexity, it is the responsibility of managers to increase the chances of success because it reflects on them.

In his research, Sev emphasised the importance of effective delegation of authority because it gives delegatees power and ownership. He acknowledged that, training of delegatees is important because it minimises delegating to unqualified or less qualified subordinates.

Power dynamics can be a challenge to delegation because it is invisible. It is important for managers to know their power because it determines their influence. Managers need to understand their organisations, where it is going and support it to meet its strategic objectives. They need to pay attention on the influencers to understand their own power and decision making.

In line with dealing with power dynamics, managers need to encourage a spirit of collaboration and distribute responsibility evenly and fairly. People need powers to make decisions and complete their tasks successfully. The ones given the power must have a clear understanding and limitations of how to use it to benefit their organisations.

Delegation of authority is meant to improve job performance and improve efficiencies Hamadat, Al-Jammal and Al-Khasawneh, Political economists have tried to form models that show that politics are formed to empower bureaucracies Volden, However, it has also been proved that delegation is higher in unified teams and organisations Volden, Politics impacts delegation and managers need to be vigilant of the political nuances.

Delegated tasks can be used as political weapons to stall and delay delivery unnecessarily. Understanding the politics of an organisation can help with knowing how to delegate. Selling an idea for others to see value provides the means to get buy-in and delegate accordingly. Continuous and consistent feedback that is honest must be given to everyone in the same manner.

Providing feedback should not be seen a yardstick but a way to reflect on delegated tasks. Weekly check-in and stand-up sessions provide the means to showcase what was done. Weekly meetings are for presence and to get a sense of where people are. It creates environments where individuals have space to apply their mind and provide feedback based on their understanding of the task.

Riisgaard et al. Delegatees must be encouraged to solicit feedback from the people they worked with in the delegation journey. Feedback must be requested from stakeholders about their satisfaction and key questions asked must include getting an understanding of how delegatees influenced the outcome, identification of blind spots, areas of development, and any information that can help to do better going forward.

Monitoring is a control function that helps managers develop systems to measure performance, productivity and cost, and align with members on delegated tasks Du Brin, Defining milestones helps with monitoring progress to determine whether the goals will be achieved or not within the specified timelines. It is an important checkpoint to safeguard identifying issues at the end and provides an opportunity to finetune and align.

Milestones are supported with regular check-ups defined upfront to avoid any ambiguities. Managers need to provide guidance to deliver tasks successfully and delegatees are encouraged to ask questions and bring their own expertise and experience. The calibre, capability and competencies of delegatees are important for delegation to succeed.

The focus must be on delivering results by identifying the right person to do the work Bell and Bodie, Skills and competencies are finite and independent on the level of the individual but dependent on the aptitude, potential and willingness of a person. Delegation must not be prescriptive on what the delegatees must do but provide high level of what needs to be done and let them run with it. Understanding what individuals can or cannot do beyond tasks is important. Interest from delegatees is important because when people are assigned tasks they enjoy, they give it their best and results follow.

For delegation to succeed, it must have support structures where delegatees can seek help when faced with challenges Bell and Bodie, Delegation is not a once off exercise and expect results but a process that needs active involvement once tasks have been delegated. In the initial stages, leaders need to spend time with delegatees to make sure that both are aligned.

Support of who they need to speak to for information is important. Furthermore, understanding gaps and support mechanisms improves delegation. Understanding strength and weaknesses of the delegated person is important for delegation because it provides a lens of when and what to delegate Muir, When managers delegate, they improve on it over time.

Lessons learnt during delegation are taken into learning process and improves the quality of delegation. Mentoring is a necessity and supports growth and development Moed, Managers must provide parameters for delegation and avoid being too close but work on co-ordination of resources including mentoring, reviewing progress and provide support when required Morake, Monobe and Mbulawa, Mentoring is important for delegation and must be done fairly to support the delegation process.

With the right level of mentorship, delegatees can improve the quality of work. Research has shown there is a relationship between performance and motivation Robescu and Iancu, Managers need to build and attract people into their teams.

When people are given a platform to learn and innovate, it creates a sense of self-fulfilment and improves the quality of the output. When individuals are given meaningful tasks and they successfully deliver on them, it creates a sense of pride and ownership and propels them to do more.

Organisations must be transparent by making information available to everyone who needs it Flyverbom, Energy is the drive that enables others to do their work and more. Managers need to be transparent about their intentions right from the start to get buy-in. People feel comfortable if they know what is in it for them. By being honest and staying true to self creates a sense of belonging that attracts people. It creates a level of transparency and openness where everyone feels part of the team.

Managers must focus on cross-skilling, increase openness, and encourage the team to take on more challenges. People need to see what managers are doing and how it contributes to the broader organisation.

Managers need to be available for their teams because people come from different backgrounds and everyone needs to feel special to be part of the team. There must be a balance between work and personal lives. Reward and recognition must be included as part of business as usual and not be treated separately because individuals provide their service to organisations and must be rewarded for doing so.

It is an extension of our social context where a reward is seen as a stimulus to do more. Because you are dealing with human beings, it is important to recognise and acknowledge achievements. Sev stressed the importance of having reward a policy to encourage both the delegator and delegatee to increase performance.

True leadership starts from within. Building leaders of tomorrow should not be limited to own team but to everyone. Leadership is influencing considering the complexity and dynamism of the environment, and interactional context Bamidele and Olubunmi, Everyone who is in a position are because there is something they are bringing into the organisation.

Managers should not look for their replicas but potential and build on it. It is important to have space for people to exhibit their thinking over and beyond tasks to create value.

When people know their leaders are genuinely concerned about their wellbeing and development, everything else falls into place. If a leader has no purpose and is in limbo, it reflects badly on the team which creates a sense that people are just merely resources.

If people are treated as human beings with aspirations, growth potential, delegation becomes part of the team and improves the quality of tasks. Managers need to look at the value to determine what to delegate because human beings can deal with anything that can be thrown at them. Maturity determines whether delegatees can deal with tasks or not. To delegate successfully, it requires an appreciation of contract law, oral contracts or psychological contracts Serrat, Contracting, whether verbal or formal provides the means to enable delegation.

For delegation to work, there must be clear goals, objectives and expectations done through contracting. Contracting provides an opportunity for the delegatee to agree on what can be done. If anyone deviates from that, organisational processes should be followed.

If contracting between different levels is not done properly, it affects the delegation process. Delegation needs managers to show a level of trust to their subordinates Muir, Trust and relationship are key in successful delegation because it create a level of comfort and ownership that tasks will be delivered as expected. Trust is a human element and provided the elements of unconscious bias do not inform on the trust position, trust will always supersede the conscious bias. If there are conscious biases that informs trust, it is not a factual bias upon which decisions are made.

Managers delegate to those they trust because it is a natural inclination to do so. Trust must be supported with facts than assumptions. Because trust is infused in letting go and handing over to someone; managers are hesitant to delegate because of the risk of non-delivery. The focus must be on building trust done by looking at the intrinsic value of people, behaviours, attitude and interests.

Trust is earned by being vulnerable and accepting that managers are human beings and can also make mistakes. Managers lack confidence in themselves and others because of varying degrees of insecurity which brings job security and delegation into play Ghumro, Mangi and Soomro, Job insecurity can create certain biases forcing managers to delegate less and not fully exploit the power of delegation.

The bias of delegation stems from lack of trust knowing that certain individuals will deliver based on their track record. The thinking between people who trust each other turns to be similar because they understand the robustness of the processes they go through to get to where they are and assume that anyone within that system can take on whatever responsibility and has the capability to deliver.

People respond differently based on the cultural contingency of their leaders and the organisation Chevrier and Viegas-Pires, In delegation, creating a working culture that is coherent with the organisation is important. Age, gender, religion and other cultural beliefs are not the determinants of delegation.

People must be treated fairly without neglecting cultural differences to avoid potential mismatches. People are conscious and subconscious beings and always have a perception about things and about others Vithoulkas and Muresanu, The subconscious mind is not suppressed when delegation is done and being aware of our own subconsciousness creates an elevated awareness to delegate accordingly. Delegation is not natural, it must be supported with a culture that allows people to fail and learn from their mistakes.

National cultures impact delegation. People do not leave their cultures when they go to the working environment, it is part of who we are. It is not easy to detach oneself from own culture. It is important for managers to understand these dynamics and embrace them for delegation to succeed.

Organisations are built on models and how people organise themselves to be effective and deliver value. Job design and roles can impact delegation. If jobs are designed using vertical structures with information flowing from the top to the bottom, delegation will suffer because only a few can speak to certain people.

Jobs that are too restrictive prevent people from going over and beyond their job descriptions. Managers need to be aware that their jobs go beyond what is written on paper. Job designs that are less prescriptive enables delegation. Delegation is rooted in organisational structures, decision making and handing over of authority Ferrari, Organisational hierarchy can affect delegation positively or negatively based on how it is designed and implemented.

If there is a disconnect, delegation will fail. Managers must focus on creating an alignment between the tiers of management and continuously monitor it for misalignments. Focus must be on the organisation and build structures that embrace delegation. The research has highlighted the success factors of delegation including quality and compliance. It identified what is deemed as the premise of delegation and its foundational elements to make it succeed.

It has revealed that, there is a ceiling in delegation and that not every task can be delegated. In the delegation process, the manager who delegates is always accountable besides assigning tasks to delegatees.

The findings have shown that there is no structured process for delegation. Some managers are intentional about delegation and apply themselves on what need to be delegated while some still battles with the concept of delegation. Overall, there is an appreciation that delegation is meant to empower the delegatee and delegated tasks should be done in line with this.

Due to the psychological and theoretical nature of delegation and it being a soft skill, the lines of whether tasks are done to empower others or for business as usual are blurred. Since delegation comes from within and the interest to grow others, managers accept that delegation has biases and needs maturity for it to succeed. Delegation needs a higher level of authority, power and influence defined in leadership. To realise its value, delegation needs managers to operate beyond management and lead from the front.

It requires a leadership and empowerment paradigm that is intentional about the growth and development of others. Because delegation is giving authority to the next person, the respondents agreed that attitude, aptitude and competencies are key in the process. The focus should be on people including their interests without neglecting the required skills because these can be learnt. Support structures are a must for delegation to succeed; these include training, mentoring, coaching and easy access to information.

An alignment of what needs to be done and the expected outcome discussed up front is a key enabler for delegation. Trust is important in delegation because without it, nothing gets done between managers and their subordinates. Managers need to focus on building trust, teams and relationships. Monitoring of progress made in the delegation journey is done through meetings, stand ups and reports.

Managers need to consider what delegatees think and bring them early in the delegation journey. The research revealed that delegation is an art and needs a meticulous approach because it deals with people. There is a general feeling that rewards should be done fairly and in line with the organisational standards.

Rewards should go beyond money. Delegation is silent and not an item that features a lot in boardrooms but important for organisational success. By being in management, it is assumed that delegation is done. Due to implicit characteristics of delegation, the respondents found that organisational hierarchy, job design and politics can to a certain degree impact delegation.

The respondents agreed that delegation needs a culture which must be influenced by the organisational culture. The research used purposeful sampling targeted at senior managers and executives working in South Africa. It focused on the level without any distinction between public and private sectors. Make arrangements so that you are not interrupted.

Explain why the person was selected for the assignment and what results need to be achieved. Remember, you are assigning responsibility for producing outcomes—not just performing tasks. Encourage the other to ask questions. This needs to be a dialogue, not a monologue.

Be sure to agree about timing and the control process by the end of the discussion. This is a common failure in delegation discussions. Do not, however, come across as testing them. Will you please tell me what you have heard so far? What kind of power will the person need to accomplish the results? Inform whoever else needs to know that you have delegated this responsibility to ensure their cooperation with the employee. Follow up and provide coaching and guidance if needed. You are delegating, not abdicating.

Be available for questions and to help resolve resistance from others. But remember not to look over the shoulders of those to whom you have delegated responsibility. Instead, provide feedback to reinforce what has been done well and to help them learn when they make mistakes or encounter problems that require learning.

Mark the calendar for checkpoint dates and updates on progress. Sam R. Lloyd is president of the training firm SuccessSystems, Inc. Adapted with permission from SuccessSystems, Inc.

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Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks. OK Join. An error has occurred. From Email. To Email. Send Cancel Close. Clearly, delegation has the potential to increase the level of productivity of heads and management of educational institutions.

In view of this, heads of institutions are able to dedicate more time and resources to daunting and challenging tasks that require more attention.

The need for quality education and its subsequent management envisages the need to delegate some roles to other staff to ensure that more ground is covered in administering quality education to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

Delegation of responsibilities also comes with empowerment. This enables individual staff and team members to achieve results that are critical in the competitive educational industry. Delegating responsibilities helps increase the level of speed, response and customer satisfaction for all stakeholders Riisgaard et al, Delegation promotes empowerment that is an effective tool that management and leadership allow a team or an individual staff the freedom and creativity to achieve the strategic goals outlined by management of the educational institution.

In the case of empowerment through delegation, it is expected that management and leaders measure the performance of the individual based on the milestone reports and results as well as the final reports submitted. It is imperative that delegation allows compliances to the required or outlined procedure accepted by the educational institution.

It is hence important to ensure that simple daily tasks are delegated to individual staff whilst ensuring that they have been empowered to undertake such tasks. Delegation involves authority to complete an assigned task but does not involve the delegated individual transferring the task to another individual. This helps the manager or the leader to review the delegated work and ensure that it is completed and properly done to meet the expected goals.

Employees have and continue to be the most valuable resource any educational institution has. Hence, heads of schools can work more effectively by empowering employees who perform delegated jobs with the authority to manage the assigned tasks. It is important to successfully train employees to acquire the required skills, experience and the resulting confidence that helps develop the subordinates for higher positions.

Good delegation provides better managers and a higher degree of efficiency. Primarily, delegation aims to get the job done by someone else Hubbard, The several benefits of delegation include it saves time and helps achieve more within a short stipulated time.

Delegating responsibilities to team members helps utilize the capabilities and strengths of other individuals within the organization. It goes a long way to help increase the value of the leader. Delegation helps enhance the credibility of the leader Muir,