What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Delegation?
The advantages of delegation include developing other workers into better managers, freeing up time, improving motivation and morale, helping in timely completion of tasks, enhancing decision-making and allowing productivity. The disadvantages include a lackluster performance of a worker, lack of enough time to train a worker and the risk of choosing the wrong person. Using the authority of delegation effectively will ensure the best results from a workforce.
Delegation is an effective technique that can help a manager complete tasks quickly, but also poses different risks. The most important thing is to know what work to delegate to other workers. A manager should also understand if they are allowed to delegate particular tasks, prior to assigning duties. This allows them to be informed and/or asking superiors for permission to delegate. Overcoming the barriers of using delegation authority can help a manager to avoid some of the disadvantages of delegation.
Preparing a worker for a duty is important, and this involves early training and helping them overcome the fear of failure. Involving workers in specific tasks helps in making informed decisions and improves productivity at different levels of the production process. It is sensible to note that this cannot be attained through blind selection of workers to take up duties. Choosing the wrong person can lead to costly mistakes and a drop in productivity.
