Chapter 7, Problem 1DQ

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The advantages and disadvantages Sandra's approach to delegation.

Introduction:

Sandra Holt being the manager of Electronic Assembly has asked Hector Cruz who is her senior technician to manage things around the department whilst she needed to work on the budget. She needed peace for at least a week for her to complete the figures regarding the budget. After ten days, Sandra came to know that Hector has recruited senior secretary as he did not know that Sandra has promised interviews for that position for two other people.

Explanation of Solution

Delegation is the process of passing down authority for a particular duty, function or tasks. There are many benefits and drawbacks in delegating tasks. The pros are that, delegating reduces stress and workload is reduced, the senior manager will focus more on the key tasks and by delegating the subordinates will feel more motivated and will have the autonomy, whereas the cons would be, delegating important responsibilities to a inattentive individual is risky, delegating is hard in a smaller firm and delegating might increase workload and stress to other subordinates.

In the given scenario, Sandra has delegated her responsibility to Hector that is to be in charge of the department whilst she worked on the budget. For one to delegate authority to another, the manager should follow certain approaches to help to do the job right, such as; delegating the full duty, to find the correct person, ensure that authority is equal to responsibility, disclose all the information and instructions needed to be provided, continue receiving constant feedback and finally evaluate and give reward according to the performance. Concerning the case, Sandra delegated the task to the right person that is the senior technician and she also delegated the whole task. However, there are few drawbacks, and that is why there were mistakes done by the technicians. Sandra did not give Hector all the information and instructions that should be followed while she was gone, if Sandra would have told Hector that she is going to interview two people for the senior secretary role after she comes back then Hector would not have recruited anyone for that position and also according to the given scenario there was no feedback asked for or received, thus Sandra would have not known what is happening at the company.