What is the process of systematically delegating power and authority throughout the organization to middle and lower level managers?

Organizationally speaking, distributing authority is important in the empowering of lower level employee’s.  Employees without responsibility / authority often feel restrained and unable to think for themselves.  Without authority, the demands on a manager are even greater, as they need to make decisions for subordinates constantly.  By giving the authority to the subordinate, a manager can then spend their time elsewhere doing important tasks like planning.  An empowered employee is often a happier and more productive employee.

What is authority?  Authority is power that has been legitimized by the organization.  Organizations must determine how authority is distributed among positions.

The Delegation Process

What is delegation? delegation is the process by which managers assign a portion of their total workload to others.

Why do managers delegate?

  1. Enable themselves to get more work done
  2. Allow employees with more expertise than they have to handle the problem or task
  3. Develop subordinates managerial skills by participating in decision-making and problem solving
  4. Allow subordinates to learn more about the overall operations

Figure 11.4 (Griffin) Steps in the Delegation Process

Problems in Delegation

→Some managers fail to plan in advance

→Some managers are afraid the subordinate may do a better job and pose a threat to their own position

→Managers may not trust their subordinates

→Some subordinates may be afraid to they could fail at the task and as a result get reprimanded

→Some subordinates see no benefit it taking on additional work/responsibilities

Centralization and Decentralization

Centralization: The process of systematically retaining power and authority in the hands of higher-level managers.

Decentralization: The process of systematically delegating power and authority throughout the organization to middle and lower-level managers.

Below are a variety of tools to help you with delegation:

How_to_Delegate : This link provides a short quiz that helps determine if you are a good candidate for delegation.  It outlines the important components of delegation that’s done well.  In addition, it provides a checklist to help with the delegation process.

Successful Delegation Using the Power of Other Peoples Help:  This article discusses the Who, What, When, Why and How of delegating.

This video offers instructions on how to use Microsoft Outlook to delegate tasks out to others.  This tool will be beneficial to managers in order to keep track of the tasks assigned to others as well as when particularly tasks are due.  

This short video touches on quick tips and key factors to keep in mind in delegating responsiblity.

How to Empower Your Employees: This article posted on BusinessWeek from the Harvard Business Review outlines how you can empower your employees.

References:

Illustrations from: //balooscartoonblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/delegation-cartoon.html  and //www.everyday-wisdom.com/delegate-authority.html

Griffin, R. W. (2011). Management. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Centralization is said to be a process where the concentration of decision making is in a few hands. All the important decision and actions at the lower level, all subjects and actions at the lower level are subject to the approval of top management. According to Allen, “Centralization” is the systematic and consistent reservation of authority at central points in the organization. The implication of centralization can be :-

  1. Reservation of decision making power at top level.
  2. Reservation of operating authority with the middle level managers.
  3. Reservation of operation at lower level at the directions of the top level.

Under centralization, the important and key decisions are taken by the top management and the other levels are into implementations as per the directions of top level. For example, in a business concern, the father & son being the owners decide about the important matters and all the rest of functions like product, finance, marketing, personnel, are carried out by the department heads and they have to act as per instruction and orders of the two people. Therefore in this case, decision making power remain in the hands of father & son.

On the other hand, Decentralization is a systematic delegation of authority at all levels of management and in all of the organization. In a decentralization concern, authority in retained by the top management for taking major decisions and framing policies concerning the whole concern. Rest of the authority may be delegated to the middle level and lower level of management.

The degree of centralization and decentralization will depend upon the amount of authority delegated to the lowest level. According to Allen, “Decentralization refers to the systematic effort to delegate to the lowest level of authority except that which can be controlled and exercised at central points.

Decentralization is not the same as delegation. In fact, decentralization is all extension of delegation. Decentralization pattern is wider is scope and the authorities are diffused to the lowest most level of management.

Delegation of authority is a complete process and takes place from one person to another. While decentralization is complete only when fullest possible delegation has taken place. For example, the general manager of a company is responsible for receiving the leave application for the whole of the concern. The general manager delegates this work to the personnel manager who is now responsible for receiving the leave applicants. In this situation delegation of authority has taken place. On the other hand, on the request of the personnel manager, if the general manager delegates this power to all the departmental heads at all level, in this situation decentralization has taken place.

There is a saying that “Everything that increasing the role of subordinates is decentralization and that decreases the role is centralization”. Decentralization is wider in scope and the subordinate’s responsibility increase in this case. On the other hand, in delegation the managers remain answerable even for the acts of subordinates to their superiors.

Implications of Decentralization

  1. There is less burden on the Chief Executive as in the case of centralization.
  2. In decentralization, the subordinates get a chance to decide and act independently which develops skills and capabilities. This way the organization is able to process reserve of talents in it.
  3. In decentralization, diversification and horizontal can be easily implanted.
  4. In decentralization, concern diversification of activities can place effectively since there is more scope for creating new departments. Therefore, diversification growth is of a degree.
  5. In decentralization structure, operations can be coordinated at divisional level which is not possible in the centralization set up.
  6. In the case of decentralization structure, there is greater motivation and morale of the employees since they get more independence to act and decide.
  7. In a decentralization structure, co-ordination to some extent is difficult to maintain as there are lot many department divisions and authority is delegated to maximum possible extent, i.e., to the bottom most level delegation reaches.

Centralization and decentralization are the categories by which the pattern of authority-relationships becomes clear. The degree of centralization and de-centralization can be affected by many factors like nature of operation, volume of profits, number of departments, size of a concern, etc. The larger the size of a concern, a decentralization set up is suitable in it.


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