Deciding what to delegate, what to keep, and to whom

The statement and my view

To delegate is to give a subordinate the authority needed to carry out a particular assignment. The idea behind it is selective: a manager divides the work given to him, keeps the part that only his position lets him do well, and gets others to do the rest. Delegation is therefore a matter of choice, not of handing everything down. I agree with the statement: a manager has to decide which tasks to pass on, which to retain, and which subordinate should receive each. Management texts make the same point about decentralisation, saying that management must carefully select the decisions to be pushed down and those to be kept at higher levels. The right answer, however, changes with the situation, as shown below.

Why these choices matter

Delegation done well relieves the manager of routine work so that he can concentrate on important matters, develops subordinates' talent, motivates them through the trust it shows, prepares people to lead new units as the firm grows, and clarifies who answers to whom. It often improves decisions, because people closest to operations see the facts more clearly, and it speeds them up, because subordinates need not keep checking upward. Delegated badly, the same act can put an important decision in the wrong hands or load a subordinate with work he is not equipped to do.

What a manager should delegate

• Routine and repetitive work. Freedom from routine is one of delegation's main gains for the manager.
• Operating decisions best taken on the spot. In a large organisation those directly involved in an operation usually know more about it than top management, and decisions taken near the point of action are faster and less distorted by long channels.
• Tasks that build people. Handling assignments independently gives subordinates the experience that formal training cannot, and reveals who can take on more.
• Activities that can run with some independence. Production and sales can often be decentralised to a high degree.

What a manager should keep

• Accountability for the outcome. Authority can be delegated, but accountability cannot. The subordinate answers to the manager for the delegated work, while the manager stays answerable for the final result, and his responsibility for subordinates' actions is absolute.
• Major policy decisions. Decentralisation has to be balanced by central control in areas of major policy, or departments may drift into guidelines that work against the organisation. Decentralisation itself leaves top management more time for such decisions.
• Matters needing uniform policy. Where customers or suppliers must be treated alike on price, quality or credit, authority tends to stay central, and functions such as finance may remain fairly centralised.
• Very costly decisions. As a rule, the costlier the action, the more likely it is to be decided higher up.

To whom authority should be delegated

• To someone whose abilities the manager knows. Managers who understand their subordinates' abilities can decide realistically which tasks can go to whom.
• To someone willing to accept it. Some subordinates avoid responsibility, fear criticism or see too little reward for the extra pressure; for them, the manager must first deal with the fear or the incentive.
• To qualified people, or people being made qualified. A real shortage of capable managers limits how far authority can be passed down. A lack of skill may justify holding back for a while, but not refusing to train subordinates in the long run.
• To one person per task, under one superior. Each subordinate should report to only one superior so that orders do not clash.

The manager should also beware of excuses. Lines such as I can do it better myself often hide insecurity or a fear of losing power. A shortage of good people can likewise be used as a pretext for keeping authority at the top.

Conditions that make the choice work

Once the task and the person are chosen, the authority given must match the responsibility: too much invites misuse, too little makes the subordinate ineffective. The results expected should be fixed first and authority given to suit them, and performance standards agreed before the task is handed over. Managers who cannot control are reluctant to delegate, so a working control system is part of the decision. A useful method is to start with simpler assignments and widen them over time.

Applying this to the case of a hospital chain

Consider the head of operations of a hospital group with branches in Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi.

• Delegate: nurse rosters, daily purchase of consumables within a budget, and handling of routine patient complaints go to each branch administrator, who knows local conditions far better than head office.
• Keep: the decision to buy a costly MRI machine, the rate card for procedures that every branch must charge, and the policy on medical ethics stay with her, and she remains answerable to the board for the results of all three branches.
• To whom: the Kanpur administrator, experienced and keen, gets wide authority at once; the newly promoted Varanasi administrator starts with rosters only and gains purchasing authority after three months of training and review.

Conclusion

The statement is sound. Delegation is a selection: routine and operating matters go down, policy, costly decisions and final accountability stay up, and authority goes only to people able and willing to use it, under one boss and with matching responsibility. Where the line falls depends on the firm's size, the cost of mistakes, the need for uniformity and the people available, so the manager must keep revisiting the choice.