EVALUATION OF BARRIERS TO THE DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY IN FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS WILLIAMS (P.M)
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Date
1966
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University of Agricultural Sciences GKVK, Bangalore
Abstract
Managers, in all organizations, confront the problem
of hwi; best to use and delegate whatever constitutes their
authority to make decisions. Surveys have suggested that
ineffective delegation ranks among the most common management
problems. This study has sought to examine the
manager's attitude toward his own ability to effectively
delegate authority. In so doing it attempts to improve
our understanding of the manager's perception of and
solutions to the problem of delegation.
A number of "barriers" to effective delegation hypothesized
by articles and surveys were grouped into categories
associated with the manager, his subordinates and
his organization. Sixty-five respondent managers were
then asked to evaluate the importance of each of these
fifteen lorriers to delegation by means of numerical
ratings, open-end written responses, and individual interviews. They were questioned as to other pojjsible
barriers to delegation as well as the itinds of problems
they faced and the way in which they utilized their timej
the latter being thought to represent independent, if
only approximate, indicators of the degree and quality of
delegation taking place.
A» hypothesized, seven barriers normally associated
with the manager's subordinates were all rated as more of
an obstacle to delegation than were five barriers associated
primarily with the manager himselfr suggesting that
he does indeed consider his subordinates to be principally
responsible for whatever delegation effectiveness may be
lacking. The single exception to this evaluation was the
respondent's rating of his own qualifications to make a
decision in place of his subordinates which, besides receiving
the highest rating of the fifteen barriers evaluated,
was over five standard errors above the average
value of all ratings. By contrast, all three ratings of
barriers ausociated with organization policy fell below
the overall average rating.
In spite of occasionally conflicting answers to the
various questions, the respondents seem to exude considerable
self-confIdencej lending support to the Importance
they assign to their own ability as a principal barrier to
delegation. They apparently prefer to "play it safe" and
avoid taking a chance on a subordinate making the wrong decision.
This Btudy reaffirms the mainager's view of his subordinates
as constituting the n«iJor obstacle to improving
authority delegation. It implies that if the major
barriers to delegation rest with other than his subordinates,
the manager is either not aware of It or else unwilling
to admit to this possibility. In either case
managers eeem to advocate better subordinate selection
and training as a means of improving their delegation of
authority,.
Because of the respondents' tendency to point to
both their superiors and subordinates as in some way
Impetding delegation, one might suspect a similar reaction
from the superiors and subordinates themselves Should
such a suspicion be confirmed by further research,
possibly in the form ot asking pairs of managers tor
their perception of each others role in delegating
authority, the burden ot Improving delegation ettectlveness
would seem to rest with the organization and Its
policies. Such policies might. It is suspected, guide
the use ot authority, executive communication, and perhaps
include a re-evaluation ot the nature ot authority
itiielf.
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No . of references 84