Delegation

Running head: Delegation

Delegation

University of Phoenix

Delegation

In this paper I will discuss how managers in my organization at Headquarters, Army Airfields, Airspace, and Aviation Division (USAASA) delegate as part of their management responsibilities. I will also explain how delegation could be used more effectively in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling within USAASA. Also, I will describe what skills are necessary for effective delegation.

Delegation is one of the most critical elements in the management of USAASA. Staff members are motivated when given encouragement from management and delegated responsibility with authority. Delegation is defined as empowering one person to act for another, which is how we enable the staff at USAASA to do their work. At USAASA each manager must evaluate his/her own ability to delegate, and the ability of the other members to willingly and effectively delegate to others. Marlene Wilson (1979) wrote: "The single most helpful thing to me . . . was, and still is, being very honest and realistic about my own limitations, both in time and knowledge." In her book she poses four questions crucial to successful delegation"

* Do I have enough confidence in myself that I will not only accept, but actively seek out people who know more than I do about a program area where I need help?

* Am I willing to delegate significant parts of my program to qualified people (and be glad, not threatened, if they succeed)?

* Do the jobs I offer staff members make a sensible, logical whole, or are they bits and pieces of busy work that give the people little opportunity for satisfaction or growth?

* Am I willing to shift from being a doer to being an enabler? In other words, can I become a good manager and find satisfaction in that?

If managers at all levels could answer yes to the above questions, delegating with authority would never be a problem. Delegation allows more tasks to be accomplished than if one person did them alone. The more that is accomplished, the better everyone feels about their contributions to the whole. To be a successful manager, you have to give up the notion that you can do everything yourself. As obvious as that may seem, learning to properly delegate responsibility may be the toughest part of your job.

USAASA managers who delegate intelligently and follow up consistently are able to accomplish more than those who hoard tasks their subordinates should be doing. The key duties of a manager are to plan, organize, coordinate, set goals, establish priorities and think creatively. By delegating appropriate tasks to subordinates, a manager saves his time for these important tasks while saving his USAASA money by completing a job with a lower GS employee. Additionally, delegation enriches the lower level jobs by providing challenge, authority and variety. At USAASA we've learned that delegation enables subordinates to demonstrate their competence, win greater recognition and gain confidence. Rather than simply taking orders, subordinates learn by thinking through a problem, establishing a plan and then performing the task. Despite the potent benefits, there are dozens of reasons why some USAASA managers don't delegate. Some are based on rational reservations. Others are more emotional or psychological but at the end of the day the decision still rests with them. My personal belief of why some staff members do not delegate their functions is that these managers fear losing their status by no longer being regarded as "the expert" or the principal architect of a well-executed project. They also mistake delegation for giving up responsibility and authority. They fail to realize that effective delegation requires only the sharing of turf. It doesn't mean giving up a thing. With the sharing of territory, subordinates will approach tasks with much more interest and enthusiasm than they would if they were assigned a job in which they held no stake.

USAASA managers are most concerned with the way their subordinates operate. The challenge at every level is to delegate and to get those at lower levels to take responsibility for making the decisions that they should make. Managers insist that their subordinates make all of these decisions and that they make them in the right way. There are a few exceptions, the depth of technical knowledge in USAASA increases at lower levels of the management hierarchy. This means that when decisions are made with proper goals and sound criteria, they are invariably better decisions when they are made at the lowest