The Filipino Entrepreneur

The primary purpose of delegation is to make an organization work. Just as no one person in an enterprise can do all of the tasks necessary to complete a project, so it’s impossible, especially in a growing enterprise, for one person to exercise all of the authority for making decisions.

There is also what you call “the span of control”, which is the limit to the number of persons any manager can effectively super-vise and make decisions for. Once this limit is passed, authority must be delegated to subordinates, who will make decisions within the area of their assigned duties.

1. Authority is delegated only when discretion to act is vested in a subordinate by a superior.

What the superior is saying to the subordinate is: “I have confidence in your judgment, so I am giving you responsibility and authority over this activity in the organization” Superiors can’t delegate authority they don’t have. For example, the manager in Quality Assurance can’t delegate some of his authority to the manager in Production. This is because the manager in Quality Assurance is responsible to the Plant manager for the activity in his department and, therefore, his authority extends only to Quality Assurance. He can delegate some authority, however, to people in his department when he believes it will improve productivity.

2. Superiors can’t delegate all their authority without passing on their position to their subordinates.

For example, if the vice-president of manufacturing delegated all his authority to the plant manager, he would be giving up his position. The person who has the authority to act as vice-president is the vice-president philosophically speaking: “The gift can never exceed the giver”

3. Delegation is a process.

It involves determining the results expected, assigning tasks, delegating authority to accomplish those tasks, and taking responsibility for their accomplishment. In practice, it’s Impossible to split this process. Expecting a person to accomplish goals without the authority to achieve them is meaningless, as is the delegation of authority without knowing to what end it will be used.

Source: Industrial Management Course

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