can judge. The responsibility is always mine, but the decision lies
with whoever is on the spot.’
A CASE STUDY
A group of researchers studying how managers delegate found
that the following was happening in one of the companies they
were studying:
In the situations in which the men we were interviewing found
themselves, the boss was usually a hurried, and sometimes a
harried, man. He gave out broad, briefly stated assignments,
expecting his subordinates to make sense out of them. He also
expected them to decide what information they needed, to
obtain that information and then to go ahead and carry out their
assignments. In the case of repetitive tasks, the typical boss
assumed that after a few trials his subordinates would know for
themselves when a job needed doing.
Frequently the boss wasn’t sure himself about which issues
needed attention in his department. And although he knew what
eventually had to be accomplished, often he had less idea than
his subordinates about the approaches to take. It wasn’t unusual,
therefore, for the boss to be vague or even impatient when
approached with questions about the job while it was going on.
Usually he was much more assertive in describing what he
wanted after a job was done than while it was in progress.
The production director came out of the board of directors’
meeting where he had been roundly criticized for not getting the
most out of his organization. He immediately called a meeting of
his subordinates and told them: ‘I don’t intend to subject myself
to such humiliation again. You men are paid to do your jobs; it’s
not up to me to do them for you. I don’t know how you spend
your time and I don’t intend to try to find out. You know your
responsibilities, and these figures bear out that you haven’t
discharged them properly. If the next report doesn’t show a
marked improvement, there will be some new faces around
here.’
How to Delegate 65