Abuse of Delegation | Misuse of Delegating

Abuse of Delegation | Misuse of Delegating

Delegation is a core part of leadership and management, according to what we have learnt from numerous management works. It is often described positively as an effectiveness method or management technique that helps both superiors (managers) and subordinates (employees), with managers being able to focus on important areas while employees having an opportunity to build their abilities and skills.

However, recent research looks at the circumstances under which managers choose to delegate and reveals that when entrusting tasks to others, managers’ real intentions are often not that positive. The study discovered that managers interviewed tended to delegate decisions when the consequences would affect other people, in particular when all the options were not appealing.

The researchers believe this pattern was driven by 2 factors:
1. A desire to avoid criticism or blame and
2. A desire not to feel responsible if something bad happened to other people.
In other words, the willingness (or reluctance) to delegate had little to do with how important, difficult, and/or complex the decision is.

Moreover, the researchers found that people didn’t delegate to just anyone. Their choice of delegatee is based on someone’s level of authority rather than his or her expertise, which means someone who would clearly be responsible for whatever happened.

Understanding these dynamics can obviously be helpful for delegatees (to avoid being assigned an unfair assignment), and for emerging managers when their decisions will affect others, and for companies looking to help their managers delegate appropriately.

Source: Steffel, M., Williams, E. and Perrmann-Graham, J. (2016). Passing the Buck: Delegating Choices to Others to Avoid Responsibility and Blame. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, Volume 135, July 2016, pp.32-44. Available at Science Direct.

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		2 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	Wrong Use of Delegation Caused by Lack of Equanimity Avoiding responsibility and blame while delegating may be a result of not attaining a state of equan... Sign up

		4 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Proper and Wrong Reasons for Delegation A) I'm not sure that those who need to correct these practices engage in these forums 😃. B)... Sign up

		3 Ioannis Stathakopoulos Manager, Greece
	Delegation is Powerful for Managers But Must Be Just Delegation is a very powerful tool for any manager. You delegate tasks because you trust the other p... Sign up

		2 David Harland Consultant, United Kingdom
	Nefarious Use of Delegation Delegation is a powerful tool, I've used it myself to with positive effect. However, it can be used ... Sign up

		4 Collins, New Zealand
	Role of Popular Leadership Models in Delegation Current models of leadership tend to ensure that narcissists are promoted over others. Ideas such as... Sign up

		4 Gregory Johnson Coach, United States
	Evil Delegation should be Punished @Collins: Systems of accountability are more evident based and not based on the subjective propertie... Sign up

		2 Andrew Blaine Business Consultant, South Africa
	Delegation and 'Passing the Buck' What is described in the introduction is not really delegation, but more "passing the buck" (moving ... Sign up

		1 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	Factors to Avoid Wrong Use of Delegation In my view, in order to have a good delegation by empowerment, following factors can be kept in mind... Sign up

		1 Norman Dragt Netherlands
	Why Women are Held Back @Collins: This kind of popular leadership ideas / styles are also a reason why women have less chanc... Sign up

		2 judith aldaba Philippines
	Why Abuse of Delegation is Wrong Delegation is an important aspect of management because it enables one to share certain responsibili... Sign up

		2 Costanzo Beretti, Italy
	Delegator Must Assess the Level of Maturity of the Delegee In my opinion, the most important issue on this topic is to identify correctly the level of maturity... Sign up

		2 sriram srivatsava India
	Abusing Delegation Delegation of tasks is a primary role of any manager. Taks should be delegated to someone entrusted ... Sign up

		1 Suman Kumar Director, India
	Abuse of Delegation Is Proof of an Incompetent Manager The problem is that we have a large number of incompetent managers. On one hand, they know that the... Sign up

		5 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Allowing Abuse of Delegation by Managers is Proof of Incompetent Senior Management @Steven Cooke: Let's hope people who delegate poorly will visit and learn from this topic… If you kn... Sign up

		1 James Antwi HR Consultant, Ghana
	How to Know and Avoid Abusive Delegation is Used Upon You? Surely such abusive practices are very negative tactics which then defeat the whole purpose of deleg... Sign up

		2 Charlie Sattgast United States
	Monkey Business Book @Steven Cooke: It's: "Monkey Business" by William Oncken Jr. Note that there are a multitude of boo... Sign up

		1 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Excellent Reference @Charlie Sattgast: THANKS! I read it years ago as I moved into upper-middle management. It's in a bo... Sign up

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Abuse-Misuse of Delegation Delegation is the foundation of management. Management only exists because of the need to delegate. ... Sign up

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Managers Abusing Delegation @Maurice Hogarth: I agree that abuse of delegation as mentioned by Chloe Xu strikes at the very hear... Sign up

		2 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Accountability in Management @Jaap de Jonge: Failure to hold people to their responsibilities - at any level - is a sign of a sic... Sign up

		1 MIKE MUTOMBO LUAMBA Management Consultant, Congo, Democratic Republic of the
	Delegation Excludes Control Personally, I consider delegation to be an act of trust. And I never accepted the maxim that trust d... Sign up