What do you call the assignment of new or additional responsibilities to a subordinate?
Andrew Mckinney
Updated on July 24, 2026
Delegation is the assignment of authority to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities. It is a shifting of decision-making authority as well as responsibility for the results from one organisational level to another lower one.
What is delegation explain its degrees?
Delegation is an authority to a manager to act in a certain manner. The degree of delegation defines the limit within which a subordinate manager has to decide the things. Being formal authority organisation at top level, it is distributed delegation or re-delegation.
Is the assignment of different tasks to different people?
Term:Division of LaborDefinition:The assignment of different tasks todifferent people or groups. Term:SpecializationDefinition:A process in which differentindividuals and units perform differenttasks.
Why do organizations delegate authority and responsibility?
In an organization, the manager has several responsibilities and work to do. So, in order to reduce his burden, certain responsibility and authority are delegated to the lower level, i.e. to the subordinates, to get the work done on the manager’s behalf.
What is delegation its advantages and disadvantages?
The Disadvantages of Managers Delegating to Employees To be effective at work, you often have to delegate tasks to others. When you do it properly, delegation can have a major positive impact on the productivity and motivation of your team. Get it wrong, however, and delegation could lead to confusion and inefficiency.
What are the three basic approaches to departmentalization?
The three basic approaches to departmentalization are functional, divisional, and matrix.
Is are a characteristic of a mechanistic organization?
A mechanistic organization is characterized by a relatively high degree of work specialization, rigid departmentalization, many layers of management (particularly middle management), narrow spans of control, centralized decision-making, and a long chain of command.
What Cannot be entirely delegated?
According to the principle of absolute responsibility, authority can be delegated but responsibility and accountability cannot be delegated by a manager. The manager is responsible or accountable to his own superior for both, the tasks that he has assigned his subordinates and the acts of his subordinates.
What is authority and responsibility?
Authority means a formal, institutional or legal power in a particular job, function or position that empowers the holder of that job, function or position to successfully perform his task. Responsibility is the obligation of a subordinate to perform a duty, which has been assigned to him by his superior.
What are the basic elements of delegation?
Delegation involves following three elements:
- Assignment of Responsibility: The first step in delegation is the assignment of work or duty to the subordinate i.e. delegation of authority.
- Grant of Authority: The grant of authority is the second element of delegation.
- Creation of Accountability:
Is delegation good or bad?
Delegating is not a bad word. It doesn’t mean you can’t do it all yourself; it means you’re a strong enough manager that you can identify projects that would be good for others on your team. Use the tips above to remind yourself when you should be assigning more tasks to your employees.
What is the advantage of delegation?
Benefits of Delegating Gives you the time and ability to focus on higher-level tasks. Gives others the ability to learn and develop new skills. Develops trust between workers and improves communication. Improves efficiency, productivity, and time management.
What is the most common form of departmentalization?
Function departmentalization is the most common type. A functional structure makes efficient use of specialized resources and makes supervision easier. This is especially used in smaller companies and is divided into departments such as finance, marketing, or production.
What are the types of departmentalization?
The primary forms of departmentalization are by function, process, product, market, customer, geographic area, and sometimes matrix (also called project organization). In many organizations, a combination of these forms is used.
What is an example of a mechanistic organization?
General Motors is a good example of an organization using the mechanistic model. Why do they use that? For one, they’re very large, and when that many people and functions are involved, order is needed. But they’re also in a stable, if not somewhat simple, environment.
Is Disney a tall or flat organization?
The Walt Disney Company has an organizational structure that is high on both the vertical and horizontal differentiation chart.
Who Cannot be delegated from the following?
Responsibility cannot be delegated because even if the manager share his work with his subordinate he is still completely liable(accountable) for the effective accomplishment of the task.
Can authority be delegated?
This ensures that responsibilities can be completed efficiently. On one level, delegating authority is just dividing work into tasks that others can do. In other words, delegated authority is the sharing of authority. It’s also the monitoring of efficiency by making employees accountable for their doings.