Glancing through Wikipedia you might notice ‘Delegation’ being defined as “assignment of authority and responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities.”
Delegation, thus, is one of the core concepts of leadership being encouraged in almost all the management, administration and human resource programmes. Although in professional fields delegation was previously considered to be an automatically accepted practice once a person reached a certain level in his or her particular line of work, nowadays different organisations that may not be directly related to the traditional management and administrative fields, instill the idea and concept of delegation among their employees through seminars, certifications and mandatory requirements of documented delegation for career growth and promotions.
Delegation empowers a subordinate to make decisions and the decision-making authority transfers from one organisational level to a lower one. Samad, a software engineer by profession and a staunch believer of adoption of delegation in companies, however, thinks that delegation works in a structured environment only. “The best thing about my workplace was that we were answerable to no authority. Being our own bosses, we were given the authority. But that was the worst thing as well. Our field of work was so interlinked that adopting this policy ended up in total chaos. Everyone was asking each other for different chores. Productivity started going down. So every member, in my opinion, needs to report to a senior or supervisor.”
Not only does delegation help save time and money, it also cultivates budding skills and happens to be one of the most important tools for motivating people. As expected, lack of delegation or poor delegation might cause frustration and confusion for everyone as portrayed in the following example of a postgraduate trainee, let’s call him Dr J.
Dr J was livid. It was the sixth time during his house job that he had tried learning a simple bedside procedure from his professor, who also happened to be in charge of his department. But he was somewhat shoved aside everytime by him for one reason or the other. Dr J was depressed. He started wondering about his future in the field of medicine. Trying to seek help from his immediate seniors, the postgraduate trainee students working in the same department, he discussed the issue with them. Most of them also said that it was really difficult even for them to get something out of their boss that would help them grow academically and professionally. Like Dr J, a few of the other PGs were also speculative about their future and were looking forward to transferring their remaining training requirement to departments run by other professors in other hospitals.
A recent MBA in human resources (HR), Amna Karim, felt that in such cases the magnitude of the organisation mattered as well. “Many factors including the size of the organisation, its culture, resources and its annual growth rate, too, matter. A learning organisation, such as the many multinational corporations (MNCs) in Pakistan would ensure that the process of delegation and transfer of skills takes place properly. The HR departments also play a significant role here by implementing policies and procedures for promoting the process,” says Amna.
She believes that the lack of delegation was common in family-owned businesses. “A major gap exists there as the management usually fails to delegate and empower its workforce in an attempt to maintain authority. This usually backfires. When the leader or manager is unable or unwilling to develop subordinates through effective delegation, no provision is made for the continuation of business and its lasting success.”
This eventually boils down to the fact that it is extremely difficult to run an organisation effectively and efficiently without an able and vigilant human resource department. The skills and attributes are both learned and acquired from teachers, mentors and your senior colleagues. Even the formation of the HR department and implementation of sound HR policies across the organisation requires the right usage of delegation at every step of the way.
Dr Khalid Amin, senior fellow and head of the Department of Human Resource Management and International Relations at a local business school, and visiting faculty member at different business schools worldwide, was very clear and concise when making his observations. “To be an effective HR professional, graduates and students must learn and understand concepts, skills and behaviours. There are numerous instances where the seniors are not ready to give up their forte and quite unwilling to transfer skills and delegate responsibility and authority easily to the upcoming leaders, especially in countries such as Pakistan where availabilty of cheaper labour and job security always remain on the mind of the employee. So instead of wasting one’s time and energy in organisations like these where the opportunties to learn and grow are nonexistent or limited, one should simply move to an organisation which is more conducive to learning,” he recommends.