Abuse of Delegation | Misuse of Delegating

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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 equanimity (Editor: ~ a state of psychological stability and composure) while making decisions. A state of equanimity is an essential characteristic to attain in order to be in authoritative position and yet remain happy.

		5 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) Note that this discussion is not about (good) delegation itself, but about the reasons people have for delegation, why some people hand off tasks. C) Even properly delegated tasks should be reviewed by the delegate. The best book/advise for doing that at any level of the organization was about getting/keeping "the Monkey" off your back. I forgot the actual title, but another discussion of the principle is here. This is neither a recent nor a resolved issue in business….

		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 person that he/she will deliver. You control and you coach and you expect a decent and courageous effort. But you always make sure that the delegee gets all the credit for his/her work and you take the blame for any poor results. If you are not ready for doing this, then sooner or later people will start dreading every time you ask them to do something. And you will lose their trust in you and thus their best intentions.

		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 nefariously (Editor: ~in a shameful, evil way). In the last few months, I've witnessed an individual be dismissed. The lowest person in the hierarchy delegated activities way outside their scope of competence because the delegators were clueless and needed a sacrificial lamb. Where there's one, there are usually others. This was not the first case of abusive practices at this particular firm. Recent independent article on staff appraisals: “Employees that do best in performance management systems tend to be the employees that are the most narcissistic and self-promoting,” said an HR practice leader. “Those aren’t necessarily the employees you need to be the best organization going forward.” It seems to be recognized that HR practices are inadequate to ensure psychologically suspect individuals are not getting promoted into a position where they can do significant harm.

		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 'heroic leadership' and the 'transformational leader' are based on character traits such as extroversion, charisma and fearlessness. More thoughtful styles of leadership are simply not appreciated in many organizations.

		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 properties mentioned in your response. In building effective teams, delegation is required when executing, in a positive way, toward some clearly defined outcome. With this, there are or should be measurable outcomes and timelines. Anyone intentionally employing strategies and tactics consistent with the study discussed here by Steffel, Williams, and Perrmann-Graham should be terminated IMMEDIATELY. This is behavior-based and should be crushed at its core, no matter what level one sits in the organization.

		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 responsibility downwards to protect oneself from impending failure). I think it was Napoleon who co...

		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 by the manager (delegator) to achieve the proper mental state and cohesive bonding I described @abo...

		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 chance of rising through the ranks. As most women are thoughtful, risk averse, cooperative and self doubt...

		2 judith aldaba Philippines
	When Abuse of Delegation is Wrong Delegation is an important aspect of management because it enables one to share certain responsibilities with other people and at the same time "empower" those members of the organization. However, c...

		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 of the human resource (delegee) that you would like to delegate to. Sometimes, managers delegate t...

		2 sriram srivatsava India
	Abusing Delegation Delegation of tasks is a primary role of any manager. Taks should be delegated to someone entrusted because of his/her prior accomplishment of tasks. This trust based on the individual's capabilities ...

		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 they are incompetent and hence they do not want others to develop. That is why they do not delegate whe...

		6 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 know people who might benefit from reading this, consider pointing them here using the sharing buttons...

		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 delegation. How can those who are being 'entrusted' with such problematic responsibilities know about th...

		3 Charlie Sattgast United States
	Monkey Business Book @Steven Cooke: It's: "Monkey Business" by William Oncken Jr. Note that there are a multitude of books by this title. Oncken is the correct author for this concept. He's also the creator of the Oncken...

		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 box somewhere... Relevant in this discussion is that the best work gets done when everyone is properly...

		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. Too much work for one person, so it is divided, so the need for supervision… hierarchy. Genuine del...

		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 heart of the foundation principles of management and senior managers should not hesitate to say goodbye ...

		2 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Accountability in Management @Jaap de Jonge: I agree failure to hold people to their responsibilities - at any level - is a sign of a sick organization. Sometimes the depth of incompetent management is too large. When I was work...

		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 doesn't exclude control. When we trust, control can no longer be considered. Otherwise it seems contr...

		1 Frederic A Parker Consultant, United States
	One-Minute Manager Meets the Monkey @Charlie Sattgast: The updated version is "The One-Minute Manager Meets the Monkey," (Blanchard). It uses the analogy of the monkey on one's back. Carry and feed your own monkeys and expect others to...

		2 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Delegation Without Control is Abnegation of Accountability @MIKE MUTOMBO LUAMBA: I would agree that delegation is to do with trust, in a number of ways and at different levels. However, I would suggest that we need to be cautious regarding your statement "Wh...