Good Case Study On Failure To Delegate

Introduction

Delegation is the situation whereby the responsibility and authority of performing a certain task is transferred to another person e.g. the manager may delegate a certain task to his/her juniors (Kersley et al., 2013). In delegation the person who delegate usually retains the rights and benefits of the contract and the also obligations of the contract. People delegate because they see it as a way to save time, achieve more and it increase the value of that leader who has delegated the work since it earns them respect and loyalty. When you delegate work, it is going to increase the esteem of the employees and enhance their job capabilities (Blanc, 2014). However, some leaders or managers fail to delegate and in the process this cause the organization to fail to make significant progress. This paper will analyze the importance of delegating and why some managers fail to delegate based on the case study.
It is a common practice among many leaders not to delegate some of the work to their juniors and they prefer to do the work by themselves. Even if they are promoted to higher levels, you still find them clinking to previous jobs that can be done by their subordinates if they are trained on how to undertake that work. We see this happening in spindle Rayon Mill where James Kirk is promoted to be the supervisor but we still see him going back to do the work of his juniors because he believes he is the best person to solve the problems that the company is facing. Therefore, from the analysis and evaluation of the James Kirk, the following points will assist the organization to overcome James Kirk and other leaders’ shortcoming when it comes to delegation.

Hiring of professionals to replaced those who have been promoted

The company should undertake a thorough recruitment exercise in hiring another professional who has a similar experience and who can do repair and maintenance work like how Kirk used to do. The company can advertise the position for eligible people to apply from outside the company.

Pros

The benefit of hiring an experienced professional is that, he will be able to do the same work as Kirk used to do with the same efficiency.
The company will not waste much time in training the new employee and that the work machines breakdowns will not be witnessed in future. The company will get back to its normal operations (Karkhanis, 2015).

Cons

Hiring another experienced employee from outside the company will cost the company more resources because the new employee may demand a huge wage bill
It will take some time for the new recruit to settle at the job place and adapt to the culture of the organization and maybe the company might not be having that time (Ryback, 2012).
Hiring a professional from outside the company can also bring conflict in the organization since employees may feel the organization does not value them or appreciate their work, hence they cannot get promotion. This will kill the morale of the workers at the Kirk’s firm

Promoting and training of workers within the company

The company can promote an employee from within the company and train him/her on how to undertake Kirk previous work. Additionally, the promoted employee should be given all the resources and support to make sure the employee fits and fills the gap left by Kirk.

Pros

This step will save the company the time and resources of hiring a professional from outside the company.
It will boost the morale of the workforce since the employees will feel the organization cares about their welfare
It will boost the career growth and skills of the employees. Some employees may opt to go back to class to advance their professional in the hope of getting promotion one day

Cons

It might take some time for the promoted employee to fit fully in the position or adopt the new roles and responsibility of the new position.
Training an employee usually takes some time before they become fully experienced to undertake the new role (Frege et al., 2013). Thus, this can hurt the organization incase of an emergency.
Training is costly; it requires resources which the company might not have at the moment. Hence the organization might be forced to outsource.

Use of rewards and benefits

The third option that is available for the company is not promoting Kirk to the supervisory role. The company can rewards him with a salary increment and other benefits as health insurance or recognition of the exemplary performance he has shown in his work.
Pros

The company will enjoy its normal operation without the disturbances from machine breakage.

The decision will also favor Kirk because from his actions he seems to be content by what he was doing before and he loves his previous work. Thus, removing him from the position is killing his passion.
When employees are recognized for their effort or rewarded, they are motivated and do their work better since they know the company recognizes and appreciates their efforts (Frege et al., 2013).
Cons

This can be a costly undertaking since it will increase the company’s expenses in terms of salary and wages.

The rewards and benefits used by the company such as recognition or health insurance might not meet the needs of some workers who might want to advance their career through promotions. Hence, this measure can work against the company since employee might not see or feel its impact on them.

Justification/ explanation

Kirk perhaps fears to delegate because he might be having the fear of loosing control of the role he plays in the company and that the company may fail to deliver. Kirk still wants to be the person the company relies when there is some repair work to be undertaken. The problem associated with this is that the company will be straining Kirk professionally and that; there is need for the company to hire another professional who can handle the repair and maintenance. If Kirk will be freed with repair works, he will get time to concentrate on other supervisory work (Kersley et al., 2013). Although it a good idea for the company to promote its employees depending on their performance there is a need for the company to find a suitable individual who can fill the vacancy left before promoting their employees and the person can be sourced from outside the company or from within (Blanc, 2014).
Delegation is an important exercise which should be encouraged by all the organization since it saves the organization time and resources. However, Delegation may often fail due to inadequate resources allocated to that particular task and that it may not be completed as required. Secondly, the person chosen to undertake the work may not be competent enough to do the work as required, the person may not have been trained well to do the work. For the work to be completed as required the person must have the skills and professionalism to do it. Lastly, delegation may fail because there was no accountability given in the delegation process.
Therefore, when a person is given a certain job to accomplish they need to be given enough time to do it, a well established system to follow and measures of accomplishing the work. For effective delegation to happen the managers should match the task delegated with the person capabilities and experience (Kersley et al., 2013). The managers should also train their subordinates how to accomplish work e.g. Kirk should have trained his juniors on how to maintain and repair the plant so that the subordinates will be doing the work by themselves. Additionally, managers should maintain supervisory work to review and observe how work is being done to make sure that the delegation process is a success. Lastly for delegation process to succeed the supervisors should continuously motivate their juniors to do work as expected of them (Blanc, 2014).
Conclusively, there is a need for mangers to delegate work because it will ease pressure on them and it will also give them enough time to concentrate on other managerial responsibilities rather than concentrating on one task alone. When managers delegate work to their juniors it will also give them time for self development. On the other hand, it will enhance work experience of their subordinates.

Works Cited

Blanc, Sandrine. "Expanding Workers’‘Moral Space’: A Liberal Critique of Corporate Capitalism." Journal of business ethics 120.4 (2014): 473-488.
Frege, Carola, and John Kelly, eds. Comparative employment relations in the global economy. Routledge, 2013.
Kersley, Barbara, et al. Inside the workplace: findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. Routledge, 2013.
Ron Edmondson. "5 Reasons Delegation Fails." Ron Edmondson. N.p., 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ronedmondson.com/2011/12/5-reasons-delegation-fails.html>.
Ryback, David. Putting emotional intelligence to work. Routledge, 2012.
Santosh Karkhanis. "Why Do People Fail to Delegate? - Page 2." Business Transformation and SAP Guide. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.karkhanisgroup.com/consulting/management/general-management/182-delegation-and-control.html?showall=&start=1>.