Chapter 8

Empowerment and
Delegation
Kristopher Blanchard
North Central University
 Learning Objectives
• Distinguish between delegation &
empowerment
• Utilize principles of effective delegation
• Develop and execute plans to empower others

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 Delegating Work
• Refers to the assignment of a task - It is
work focused
• It is not turning over work that the
manager dislikes
• Empowerment is focused on the individual
• Increases productivity and the
organization’s ability to achieve goals

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Formal structural dimensions:
Control to Facilitating/support

– Assignment of duties and responsibilities: Narrowly to

broadly defined
– Delegation of formal authority: Limited (centralization)
to extensive (decentralization)
– Constraints: Extensive (implementation within
narrowly defined policies, procedures and rules) to
limited (discretion in decision making and
implementation)
– Resource support: Rigidly limited to broadly available

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Organizational culture:
Custodial vs. entrepreneurial

– Sustain status quo & avoid risk to press

development & accept risk
– Downward initiative process vs. upward
initiative process
– Theory X vs. theory Y axioms broadly
defused in the organization

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 Advantages of Delegation
• Increases manager’s discretionary time
• Develops subordinate capabilities
• Demonstrates confidence in delegates
• Enhances commitment of delegates
• Improves decision making
• Increases efficiency

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 Delegation
Things to consider when delegating:
• Qualifications of subordinate
• Necessity of employee commitment
• Expansion of employee capabilities
• Evidence of shared values and
perspectives
• Sufficient time for delegation

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 Principles of Effective
Delegation
Deciding when: Deciding to whom: Deciding how:
•Subordinates have •Involve no one •Begin with the end
needed information •Consult with other
in mind
•Commitment is crucial individuals, but decide •Delegate completely
•Common values are shared alone •Allow for participation
•Sufficient time •Consult with a team •Match authority
is available but decide alone with responsibility
•Subordinates •Let the team decide •Work within the
capabilities will •Participate as a
structure
be expanded member of the team •Provide support
•Focus accountability
on results
•Delegate consistently
Effective outcomes of delegation: •Avoid upward
•Readily acceptable assignments delegation
•High morale and motivation •Clarify consequences
•Organizational coordination
and efficiency
•Increased problem solving abilities
•More discretionary time for managers
•Stronger interpersonal relationships
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 Guidelines for Effective
Delegation
• Begin with the end in mind
• Delegate broadly
• Allow participation in delegation
• Work toward parity between authority and r
esponsibility
• Work within the organizational structure

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 Guidelines for Effective
Delegation (cont.)
• Provide adequate support
• Focus accountability on results
• Delegate consistently
• Avoid upward delegation
• Clarify consequences of tasks, especially
rewards

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 Delegate broadly
• Wait to be told what to do – least delegation &
empowering
• Ask what to do – delegation & empowerment is
constrained
• Recommend then take action – more delegation
& empowerment over time and content
• Act, then report immediately
• Initiate action and report routinely – highest level
of delegation & empowerment
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 Support Participation
in Delegation

• Subordinates are given an opportunity to

negotiate the roles (degree of acceptance
of delegation)
• Subordinates should feel free to express
ideas about the parameters of the work
• Managers should be available for
consultation during the assignment on an
exceptions basis
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 Establish Parity Between
Authority and Responsibility
• Delegate the authority along with the
responsibility
• Ultimate accountability – cannot be
delegated but can be shared with the
manager

Return
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Work within the Organizational
Structure
• Delegate through subordinates not around
them in the chain-of-command
• Establish the norm of delegation to the
lowest level of the organization
• Everyone affected by the decision to
delegate should be informed.

Return
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 Provide Adequate Support
• Provide relevant information
• Provide necessary resources to
accomplish the task
• Give credit for the task publicly
• When errors are made, focus on the
;problem, not individuals.

Return
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 Focus Accountability
on Results
• Specify the goal not preferred methods
• Do not micromanage
• Support subordinates in the choice of their
own methods to accomplish results

Return
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 Delegate Consistently
• Primary reason to assigning
responsibilities & authority is to empower
employees
• Assign both the pleasant and unpleasant
tasks
• Delegate continuously, not just when
overworked

Return
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 Avoid Upward Delegation
• Occurs when the subordinate asks for help
• Manager says “Let me think about it; I’ll
get back to you later.”
• Manager now has to follow up with the
employee
• Manager signals upward delegation is OK

Return
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Empowerment—A psychological
perspective
• Empowerment enables other people to
act: it leaves them feeling strong, capable,
and committed
– “Get work done through other people”
– Broad participation and accountability
– Involvement in decision making
– Flexible response

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 Five Core Dimensions of
Empowerment
• Self-efficacy
• Self-determination
• Personal conseque
nces
• Meaningfulness
• Trust

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Buy-in of supervision &
operating personnel: Limited to
extensive

– Self efficacy: Limited to Extensive

– Self determination: Limited to Extensive
– Personal control: Limited to Extensive
– Meaningfulness: Limited to Extensive
– Trust in management: Limited to Extensive
– Growth orientation: Limited to Extensive

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 Self-Efficacy
• A sense of personal competence
• Belief that they have the ability to perform
the task
• Belief that they are capable of putting forth
the effort
• Belief that no outside obstacles will
prevent them from accomplishing the task

Return
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 Self-determination
• A sense of personal choice
• Choices about the methods used to
accomplish a task
• Choices about the effort to be expended
• Choices about the pace of the work
• Choices about the time frame

Return
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 Personal consequences
• Sense of having impact
• Feeling of active control – brings the
environment into alignment with wishes
• Feeling of passive control – whishes are
brought into alignment with the
environment

Return
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 Meaningfulness
• Sense of value in the activity
• Value the purpose or goals of the activity
• It ‘counts’ in the individual’s value system
• Creates a sense of purpose, passion, or
mission
• This is not the same as personal benefit

Return
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 Trust
• Sense of security
• Feeling that they will be treated fairly and
equitably
• Encourages the development of
relationships
• Allows people to act in a confident and
straightforward manner

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Relationship Between Dimensions
and Prescriptions for Empowerment

Self-Efficacy (competence) Vision and Values

Personal Mastery Experiences

Self-Determination
(choice) Model

Personal Consequence Provide Support

(impact)
Emotional Arousal

Meaningfulness (value) Provide Information

Provide Resources
Trust (security)
Connect to Outcomes

Create Confidence

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© 2002, 27
Leadership processes:
Passive to Active

– Vision & values: Defuse to clearly defined

– Personal mastery experiences: Limited to incrementally scaled
(small wins)
– Modeling: Limited ideal models vs. broad modeling of desired
behavior
– Support: Limited to extensive (both psychologically &
institutionally)
– Emotional arousal: Passive to active (systematically addressed)
– Information: Limited (need to know) to extensive (broad
accessibility)
– Resources: Constrained and rigid to broadly available & flexible
– Connection to outcomes: Limited feedback to broad scale
feedback on consequences
– Confidence: Limited generation to broad generation

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 Behavioral Guidelines
• Articulate a clear vision and goals for others
• Foster personal mastery experiences
• Successfully model the behaviors you want
others to achieve
• Provide needed support to other people
• Arouse positive emotions among others
• Provide information needed by others to
accomplish their work
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 Begin with the end in mind
• Clearly articulate the desired results
• Explain why the task is important
• Point out the personal benefits
• Connection to the organization mission

Return

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 Articulate a Clear Vision
and Goals
• Specific
• Measurable
• Aligned
• Realistic/Reachable
• Time-bound

Return
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 Supportive steps
• Provide resources needed for others to
accomplish their work
• Connect others’ work to outcomes and
effects
• Create confidence among others
• Follow the delegation model

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 Create confidence
• Reliability – consistent, dependable, and
stable
• Fairness – standards are clear and
enforced consistently
• Caring – show concern for the workers
• Openness – no harmful secrets exist
• Competence

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 Clarify Consequences of Tasks
Especially Rewards

• Subordinates are usually more motivated if the

consequences and rewards are clearly
identified.

Return

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Dynamics of empowerment

Structure
Development of
(degree of
personnel at each level
delegation &
(ability, experience &
resource
education
support

Positive
or negative

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Relationships: Static to
dynamic
 Over time, the interdependence between
empowerment and ability/experience/education
may support a continuous expansion of the
interrelationship, or a contraction.
 These relationships may move to an equilibrium
over time (less and less influence each cycle),
 Or continuous expansion of influence
 Result: Implosion (deteriorating performance),
or explosion (an exponential improvement of
performance).

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Interdependence of
empowerment process
• The degree that the dynamics of empowerment
creates an increasing higher level performance
turns on
• Structure, development of personnel and buy-in
of personnel at all levels.
• If there is a lack of buy-in at any level, this
potentially brings the process to a halt.
• If performance doesn’t improve over time, the
experiment in empowerment is likely to be
abandoned.

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Simultaneous Adjustments
• The empowerment process requires a
simultaneous adjustment
– Between higher and middle level management and
staff groups and lower management & operating
groups.
– Management & staff groups must shift from a control-
directing focus to a supportive- facilitating focus.
– Lower level management & operating groups must
move from an implementing within formal constraints
focus to exercising decision discretion
– Accept the associated responsibility for success or
failure.
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One time or episodic
reengineering
• Simpler to understand and achieve than a
sustained reengineering and continuous
dynamic process of empowerment.
• In a static approach, the level of
empowerment is shaped by management
judgments of the ability and experience of
the lower level personnel
• The level of lower level buy-in on the
process
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Where low levels of
empowerment exist
• The judgments are likely to be that lower
level personnel have neither the ability,
experience nor orientation to accept
broader empowerment.
• Initial efforts at empowerment are likely to
support this perspective
– A transition period is required for employees to
test out the integrity of management
– And to explore how they are to utilize the
expanded scope for decisions.
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Dynamics of empowerment
• Both the process and end points are
unstructured.
– As greater empowerment occurs, is accepted, and
personnel develop to meet the new opportunities and
demands, this supports further empowerment
processes.
– This requires a continuous shift in the roles of
management and staff groups as they relax controls,
and shift to a supportive, facilitative role.
– It requires on the part of lower level personnel
• Continuous growth and development to deal with the
expanded opportunities and discretion
• Acceptance of responsibilities for performance.

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Frictions in the empowerment
process
• Managers that retain a theory X
assumptions about personnel,
• Or have difficulty shifting from control to
supportive roles
• Operating personnel that are unable to
deal with the unstructured environment of
continuous redefinition of roles and
responsibilities inhibit the empowerment
process.
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Personnel turnover
• Some degree of personnel turnover is
likely to be associated with empowerment.
• These who cannot deal with the demands
of empowerment drop out of the system
– Either by quitting, transferring or are
terminated.
– New employees can be selected who are a
better fit and socialized in the process.

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