An organization is nothing but a collection of various departments, which, in turn, are the groups of people skilled for, performing common tasks. For example, there are Purchase Department, Sales Department, Works Department, etc. The individuals in any department have hierarchical linkage among themselves and the structure is usually in the shape of a pyramid. It depicts that as one moves upward in the pyramid, his responsibility as well as authority increases—responsibility of the performance of the department and the authority of assigning jobs to the subordinates. Achieving departmental or organizational objectives is the outcome of teamwork. All the members of the team have to work, though the nature or quantum of their work may differ. For example, in an organization, the Finance Manager has to perform cost analysis for a certain product. He assigns the job of collection of cost data pertaining to production of certain units in the Production Department to his Assistant Manager. While the Assistant Manager is responsible for timely submission of the collected data, the Finance Manager will analyze the collected data for decision-making. Though the responsibility of data analysis is of the Finance Manager, he delegates the job of data collection to the Assistant Manager. The reason is simple; no one can perform all jobs by oneself in any department or organization. One has to depute subordinates to perform various jobs in order to achieve the predefined objectives.
In any organization, whether formal or informal, it is impossible for the manager of any hierarchical level to perform all the jobs by himself.
It becomes imperative to assign responsibilities to subordinates. This assignment of responsibility to the subordinates by a manager to achieve time-bound goals in line with organizational objectives is known as delegation. Delegation is specific to various organizational assignments. It is the key to effective managerial performance. Delegation is an entwined organizational process essential for the existence and growth of all organizations. It is a simple process of assignment of job by a manager to his subordinate along with responsibility and authority. The manager assigning the job is known as the delegator and the one to whom job is assigned is known as the delegant. One important point to note here is that the accountability of the job being completed on time remains with the delegator. The delegator cannot escape from his responsibilities merely by delegating various jobs. Delegation enhances the work sphere of the manager, which is otherwise confined to him only. Delegation is also a tool of preparing the subordinates for the next organizational level. It can also be used in succession planning. Delegation not only eases the work pressure of the delegator but also develops confidence in delegants. For example, a Civil Engineer working on different projects simultaneously assigns his role to his Assistant Engineers by asking them to get the maps prepared, asking for samples, inviting quotations, scheduling various project activities, etc.
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