Predictors and Consequences of Delegation

Abstract

This research examined predictors and consequences of delegation. Parti-ciptuils were 44 supervisors and 198 claims adjusters employed in 19 branch offices of a large insurance company. Delegation was operation-ally defined as the dollar level of authority exercised by adjusters Io settle claims. Results indicated that supervisors' perceptions of subor-dinates, the volume of supervisors' workloads, and the importance of decisions were significant predictors of delegation. In addition, subor-dinates' job competence and congruence between supervisors' and subordinates' goals moderated the effects of delegation on suhordinates' joh perfonnance. Neither supervisors' personalities or predispositions to share authority nor suhordinates' satisfaction were significantly related to delegation. Implications of tbe findings for research on par-ticipative decision making and leadership are discussed. Although many researchers have examined subordinates' involvement in decision making, little empirical research has focused on delegation as a distinct management practice. Several models of leadership and decision making have included delegation as one point on a continuum of leader-subordinate processes (Heller, 1971; Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 1958; Vroom & Yetton, 1973). Researchers have paid far more attention, however, to subordinates' involvement through joint or participative decision making and bave largely ignored delegation or treated it as a subset of participative decision making. A close examination of management practices indicates that this neglect of delegation is unwarranted, Bass and Valenzi (1974), for example, found participative decision making to be only slightly more prevalent than delega-tion in a variety of organizations. Moreover, the literature for practitioners is replete with descriptions and suggestions concerning why, how, and under what circumstances managers should delegate decision making authority (e,g,, McConkey, 1974; Steinmetz, 1976), In fact, anecdotal accounts and research that only indirectly addresses delegation within global models of leadership are thus far the main sources of information about tbis practice.