Delegation
Managers have a lot of responsibilities and duties to fulfill. At times, a manager may not have enough time to complete tasks. Therefore, he or she may choose to delegate tasks to get the job done. Delegation refers to assigning tasks to another employee to carry out (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Ricky Lee is a contract manager for an office supply distributor. His manager has asked him to prepare a new procedures manual to explain how to negotiate contracts. However, Ricky is currently working on another project and will need to enlist the help of one of his employees Bill Harmon. In order for Ricky to be an effective delegator, he must follow five delegation behaviors.
Clarify the Assignment
Based on Ricky’s current workload, he is aware that preparing the new procedures manual will need to be delegated to Bill. Bill has the experience and knowledge to prepare the manual and the ability to do so. When Ricky meets with Bill, he will need to clarify the assignment. He will provide clear directions, expectations, and the due date. Ricky will need to ensure that Bill and he come to an agreement on the expectations. However, Bill will be responsible for the completion of the manual.
Range of Discretion When Ricky meets with Bill, Ricky will specify Bill’s range of discretion to be followed for the completion of the project. To best explain the amount of control that Bill has to edit the procedures in the manual, Ricky will give specific examples of acceptable changes for each section. Ricky will also give a few specific examples of unacceptable changes. This gives Bill a range of acceptable performance to work within.

Informing Others Ricky must inform any staff that may depend on the everyday work that Bill normally provides, as they will be affected since Bill’s routine work will be affected as well. While informing others, Ricky must be prepared to explain any adjustments that his staff will need to make. Also, Ricky made need to defend his choice of selecting Bill, as others may want to know why they were not chosen instead.

Reference
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2012). Management (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.