Page 2 - Lesson Note 3

superiors. Effectively, delegation involves the distribution of authority

for less important jobs to subordinates accompanied by no transfer of

accountability.

Elements of Delegation

Authority: We all are familiar with the word authority. Of course,
authority is the power of a person to command his subordinates and

take actions by the virtue of his position. In an organization, authority

differs according to job positions. This is because there exists

interlinking between the job positions and levels of the organization.

Again, authority defines the superior-subordinate relationship.

According to this, the superior communicate his decisions to the

subordinate, because he has the authority to do so, and expects the

subordinate to comply with this decision. Although authority is inherent

in the job position of a person, it also depends on the personality of the
superior. Generally, authority is highly concentrated at the top level of

an organization and reduces as we move to lower levels. In other

words, the authority has a top to bottom flow i.e. superior has

authority over his subordinate. Lastly, the limit or scope of authority

also depends on the laws, rules and regulations of the organization.

Responsibility: Delegation also involves some transfer of responsibility.

Technically, responsibility is the obligation of a subordinate to properly

perform a duty. Again, this arises from the subordinate-superior

relation as the subordinate is responsible for a job given by his superior.
A key point here is that responsibility has a bottom to top flow as the

superior is always responsible to his superior.