Delegation (organizational concept)
Delegation as an organizational concept or delegation as a process ( Latin delegare , "to send, entrust, transfer") means in organizational theory the vertical transfer of tasks , competencies and responsibility to subordinate bodies or task holders .
General
In addition to standardization and participation, delegation is a form of vertical division of labor . The aim of the delegation in hierarchical organizations is on the one hand to relieve superiors or higher-level positions so that they can concentrate on strategic tasks, and on the other hand to increase the work motivation of employees and to exhaust their skills. By deliberately delegating tasks with higher requirements than the employee's ability profile, personnel development can also be carried out ( job enrichment or job largement ). The transferor is called the delegate or delegator , the beneficiary is the delegation recipient . In economics, the delegation corresponds to the principle of subsidiarity .
Concept and model
The delegation is a means of converting traditional "top-down" hierarchies to modern "bottom-up" structures and thus a means of decentralization, as it enables a large number of people to be given decision-making powers. In their pure form, centralization and decentralization are mutually exclusive, but “the combination of both strategies becomes possible if fundamental decisions about goals and strategies for the creation and marketing of services are centralized, while operational decisions about the concrete, everyday procedure for realizing goals and strategies are centralized be decentralized. "
In accordance with the principle of “ Management by Exception ”, superiors deal with exceptional cases, while employees deal with normal cases. For this purpose, a definition of exception and normal case is necessary. Furthermore, partial goals must be derived from the overall goals of the organization in order to be able to derive and transfer tasks from these.
In principle, the possibility of delegation decreases with the difficulty of the task (especially its innovative content) and increases with the qualification of the delegation recipient. With the relocation of tasks, there must also be a shift in competence and responsibility (principle of congruence in the organization ).
Harzburg model
According to this, operational operational decisions are no longer made by the board of directors , but by employees at the lower hierarchical levels , to which these decisions essentially belong. In addition to a clearly defined area of responsibility, the employee also receives the relevant skills and responsibility. Reinhard Höhn demands the balanced delegation of tasks, competencies and responsibility ( congruence principle of the organization ). Superiors are not allowed to intervene in this area of responsibility of their employees and also not make any decisions there, unless there is an acute danger or a disruption.
Return delegation
An unauthorized return delegation is used when a decision -maker does not make a decision within his or her area of competence or does not take responsibility for it, but shifts it to a higher hierarchical level. Anyone who has decision-making authority is obliged to exercise it. On the other hand, vertical escalation of decisions in the event of faults within the scope of fault management is not a return delegation . The evocation of a supervisor or line manager pull the processing of a thing in itself, is also not a return delegation.
rating
Since delegation primarily means decentralization, it results in a greater need for coordination . Although this problem can be countered by organizational models and efficient media use in communication , the larger the organization, the more the limits become visible: "Error-free delegation across many levels of the hierarchy with effective coordination of all actions is therefore unlikely, if not even utopian. Errors in the breakdown and coordination of goals thus constitute a residual risk that every company must bear ”. With the delegation value concept it is at least in theory possible to calculate the value of a delegation.
See also
- Organizational sociology
- Delegation (delimitation)
literature
- R. Guserl: The Harzburg Model: Idea and Reality. 2nd Edition. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-409-38131-7 .
- Oskar Grün: Organization. In: Fritz Scheuch (Hrsg.): Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Service Fachverlag, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-85428-170-6 .
- Oskar Grün: Delegation. In: Alfred Kieser (Hrsg.): Short dictionary of leadership. Poeschl Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7910-8028-8 .
- R. Höhn, G. Böhme: The way to delegation of responsibility in the company - A step-by-step plan. 5th edition. Publishers for science, business and technology, Bad Harzburg 1979, ISBN 3-8020-0207-5 .
- Manfred Schulte-Zurhausen : Organization. 3. Edition. Franz Vahlen, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-8006-2825-2 .
Web links
- Delegation of tasks - overview and further information on Arbeitsratgeber.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Pons online dictionary
- ↑ Online dictionary albertmartin.de
- ↑ Description under Popular Errors korkturen.de
- ^ Margit Osterloh, Jetta Frost: Process management as a core competence. 1996, p. 162.
- ↑ a b Georg Schreyögg: Organization. 2004, p. 362.
- ↑ Reinhard Höhn, Gisela Böhme: Management Brevier der Wirtschaft. 1974, p. 6.
- ↑ Reinhard Höhn, Gisela Böhme, Management Brevier der Wirtschaft. 1974, p. 9.
- ↑ Reinhard Höhn, Gisela Böhme: Management Brevier der Wirtschaft. 1974, p. 10.