Delegation

The task

You are a manager in the loan applications department of a finance company. You are qualified
and experienced in dealing with loan applications. You have a team of four including:

A – your deputy, who is fully qualified and trained but has been with the company for only four
months.

B – 42 years old. Been with the company and in her current position for 14 years. Shows no
inclination for promotion. Reliable and steady worker.

C – 22 years old. New graduate. Keen to develop and move on. One year in the role.

D – 33 years old. Transferred from another section six months ago as part of a reorganization. Was
not happy about the move and seems demotivated, although previous reports indicated good
skills and knowledge.

It is Monday, the start of the working week. For family reasons you suddenly have to take four
days off, starting tomorrow. Looking at your diary, you have 10 tasks scheduled for the coming
week. In the time you have available today you will only be able to complete two of the tasks
yourself in addition to briefing the staff on the tasks you decide to delegate.

For each of the tasks, decide who in your team would be the most appropriate to delegate the
task to (specify A, B, C or D) and which you should carry out yourself (S = Self). Please give a brief
reason for your choice. Each task must be allocated to only one person: tasks cannot be shared
between two or more team members. It is not possible to leave a task until the following week.

Delegation involves the manager giving to a junior team member the responsibility, but not the
accountability, for carrying out a task. If it is carried out effectively, matching the appropriate task
to the appropriate person, this can be highly motivational. On the other hand, it can be seen as
‘dumping’ if the task is not sufficiently challenging.

Timing

Phase 1. Individual preparation

You will have 15 minutes to provide your individual written decision and reasoning on the
attached sheet.

Phase 2. Group decision

As a group you will have 15 minutes to agree your decision and record it on the attached sheet.
The 10 tasks

1. Attending the monthly managers meeting. This decides budgets, application of company policy,
personnel issues, etc and takes place on Wednesdays.

2. Filling in the monthly overtime returns for accounts.

3. Working out the summer holiday roster.

4. Providing information to a features journalist writing a piece on loans. Hopefully the company
can get some good publicity from this.

5. One of the team (D) has been having a lot of sick days recently. The issue needs to be addressed
directly with this person.

6. Interview panel for a new team member on Thursday.

7. Informal meeting about improving customer service standards with a training consultant. Time
to be arranged.

8. Showing a group of new starters around the section at 4 pm today and explaining the role of the
department. Total time one hour.

9. Briefing the team on a new procedure.

10. Making the final decision on three problem applications.

Task Individual Decision (A-D or S) and Reasoning Group
Decision
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