Delegation in School

Introduction
As a head, you are expected to manage the school through your own work, the work of other
teachers, staff and even pupils. You may have heard of sayings that: “Many heads are better than
one”, “Many hands make a load lighter”, etc. and certainly as a manager of a school you cannot
achieve your goals and objectives if you do all the tasks alone. In other words, you cannot teach
all the subjects in the school, head all the departments, be on duty every day of the week, deal
with all the correspondence and discipline cases, be in charge of all the clubs and so on. You will
need to use the talents of the teachers who work under you, not fearing that they will take over
from you, but rather trusting them and having confidence in them. Moreover, making use of
even the most critical or unco-operative members of your staff may result in their trusting you
and feeling more motivated and needed. By doing the above you will actually be delegating
responsibilities and duties to your teachers. In this lecture, we will explore further the delegation
process, considering its importance and the barriers to its effectiveness

Learning outcomes
After working through this lecture, you should be able to:
• understand the importance of delegation, and outline the key principles and procedures
involved in delegation
• direct, support, develop and motivate the staff working in your school by giving them
responsibilities, duties and tasks that are appropriate to their talents, abilities and capabilities
• appreciate the role of teamwork through sharing the school workload by more effective
delegation
• appreciate that by alleviating pressures in your time and improving the flow of work in school,
your own managerial performance will improve.

What is delegation?
Delegation is a process by which managers, such as school heads, transfer part of their authority
to subordinates, for the performance of certain tasks and responsibilities. By assigning tasks to
subordinates to perform on your behalf, you can enable the decentralisation of authority or office
functions, the sharing of duties/tasks within the school and the grouping of duties into
departments with group heads for easier management. Since delegation can take place at all
levels of management, department heads themselves may become involved in delegation.

Delegation is essentially a power sharing process in which an individual manages to transfer part
of their legitimate authority to subordinates but without passing on their own ultimate personal
responsibility for the completion of the overall task which was entrusted to them by their own
superiors. In other words, delegation is a process of dividing up your total work and giving part
of it to your subordinates. This involves four major elements namely;

i. Giving part of your work to your subordinates.

ii. Ensuring that the subordinates have the necessary authority to carry out the work.
iii. Setup control mechanisms to ensure that work is being done according to set standards.
iv. Accountability of the delegates i.e. Head teacher of the school cannot delegate to his
teachers, his accountability to the Board of Governors or the Ministry of Education and
Sports. In other words, serious accountability is never delegated.
Elements of delegation

It has three interrelated elements namely;

i. Assignment of duties.
ii. Grant of authority.
iii. Creation of responsibility and accountability.
Authority is delegated but responsibility is created and accountability is imposed. Authority
flows downwards while responsibility and accountability flow upwards.

Methods of delegation

Informal delegation; is a type which requires mutual understanding between the delegator and
the delegatee without any written instruction i.e. the gentleman’s agreement where boss simply
delegates with no written information.

Formal delegation; this is a type of delegation which occurs when detailed written instructions
are issued to the delegatee outlining what is to be done, how and when to mention. This form is
advantageous in the sense that misunderstandings are avoided as the delegatee knows exactly
what is expected of him i.e. the boss can ask his subordinates with whether sending him in
attending a meeting.

Implied delegation; it occurs when the volume of work of the superior has increased and the
subordinates decides to do part of his work without any written instructions of mutual
understanding i.e. employee sympathies with boss’s workload and helps him out.

The importance of delegation

Activity
(1) Think back over your work for the past few months and make a note of any tasks and
responsibilities which you delegated to a subordinate. Why did you do this?
(2) List some of the factors to be taken into account to ensure effective delegation.

Comments
You will probably have given a variety of reasons for delegating the tasks you did, including
such things as improving the flow of work and the management of your own time. The following
summary highlights the importance of delegation in schools:

i. In a school of 1,000 learners and 60 teachers the head cannot control every activity.
ii. There is a physical and mental limit to the workload capacity of any individual or group in
authority.
iii.Delegation gives time to the head to concentrate on other important matters.
iv. It is a way of preparing your juniors to handle higher and more challenging responsibilities in
future, therefore a way of training and developing them.
v. It creates confidence in your subordinates.
vi.It encourages co-operation and team work and thus subordinates feel part and parcel of the
successes or failures of the school.
vii. As a school grows more, specialisation in management, administration and teaching areas is
necessary

viii.Reduces indispensability and invisibility.

ix. Enhances self-esteem and self-fulfillment i.e. humans naturally want to direct their own
activities and assume some amount of responsibility. The delegate in this sense will develop a
feeling of participation when given some say in decision making which affects his day-to-day
work i.e. people like being in role of their duties.

x. Contributes to staff development and motivation.

xi. Facilities organizational growth.
xii. Increases flexibility in the organization as every process is no longer referred to the head for
a decision to be reached. In a school setting for instance where delegation is effectively done;
there is no delay for teachers to carry out some urgent decisions.

Delegation is an act of trust and an expression of confidence of the leader in the subordinate. It is
one of the most important methods of creating and maintaining democracy in schools. What then
are some of the factors which need to be taken into consideration to ensure effective delegation
of tasks? They include:
• delegating authority with responsibility - remember you remain accountable for the
responsibilities delegated.
• delegated responsibilities must be clear, specific and effectively communicated
• delegating authority with enough responsibility.

Determination of the right degree of delegation is part of the art of management. Effective
delegation means delegating the right amount of authority and the right kind of duties. There
will always be some tasks which should not be delegated at all. Let us summarise some of the
key principles and procedures of delegation:
Principles and procedures of delegation
1. Select the person to delegate to, on the basis of a sound knowledge of staff members in terms
of their varying levels of competence, commitment and capability.
2. The nature and scope of the work to be delegated must be clearly defined and be for the
benefit of the organisation as a whole.
3. Delegated tasks must be clearly described.
4. The person to whom a task is assigned must be capable of carrying out the task or duty to the
best of his/her ability and willing to take responsibility.
5. Mutual co-operation, understanding and faith between the manager and staff members is of
the utmost importance to enable delegation to be successful.
6. Some form of regular reporting to provide a means of progress control is required.
7. Reward successful achievement of delegated tasks.

Barriers to effective delegation

Some managers are reluctant to delegate. They may choose not to delegate tasks feeling that they
can do better than anybody else. They may feel that it will take too long a time to explain to the
subordinate undertaking the assignment. Such feelings may be contributed by concerns such as:

1. Insecurity: Where the leader is not ready to take chances/risks or fears that the
subordinate may let him down.
2. Loss of power: If the subordinate does the task very well, and even better than the leader
would have done it.
3. Failure to plan ahead: This makes it difficult to decide which task to delegate and to
whom and when.
4. Some subordinates may be reluctant to take on responsibilities assigned to them due
to insecurity. This category of people views additional work as burden. Worse still,
some subordinates view delegation as wastage of time because in the final analysis credit
goes back to the head i.e. those that say he will be the one to gain the recognition.

5. They wish their bosses to make decisions for fear of being held responsible for any
failure. They may also feel that they are not given enough incentives, and are not given
proper guidance and support by the superior. Adequate means of communication may not
be available to the delegatee for consultation with the manager if necessary.
6. Leader may not have confidence in his subordinates and this may create fear on the
part of the leader to delegate.

What makes one a good delegator?

A good delegator is one who stimulates and motivates subordinates to undertake duties and
responsibilities delegated to them by:

 clearly indicating the standard of performance expected quantitatively and qualitatively,

time limit and any other conditions involved
  giving the delegatee a chance to perform the given task without undue interference
 appreciating the efforts the delegatee has made, and assisting whenever assistance is
needed
 learning to accept that some delegated duties may not be done as perfectly as they would
by oneself
 making use of the mistakes made to develop rather than to ridicule and threaten the
delegatee: however, the delegator should make sure that the mistakes made will not
endanger the institution.
 ensuring that objective to be achieved is made clear.
 deciding what level of authority, you are granting to the delegate i.e. are you giving
limited or absolute power.
 encouraging subordinates to request for further help if needed.
 ensuring that clear reporting arrangements are made.
 allocating adequate resources be it finance or human resources
 informing the subordinates (delegates) that early mistakes will be used as learning
opportunities.
 ensuring that the task is completed according to agreed standards.
 Thanking the individual for his effort.

Summary
In this lecture, we have examined the concept of delegation, the importance of delegation and
some of the key principles of delegation. We have encouraged you to consider how you might
improve your own performance while using this crucial management function, to enable you to
build a team amongst teachers through the sharing of the workload of the school.

In today's litigious society, every management action of the school principal is potentially loaded
with legal implications. It is therefore important for the school principal to have a clear
understanding of legal principles that equally apply to education management. Invariably, one would
not expect a principal to consult a lawyer every time a professional decision needs to be taken. This
research has examined the legal implications of delegation as one of the school principal's
managerial tasks. It proceeds from the premise that the school principal possesses statutory
delegated authority and common law discretionary powers of delegation. It is therefore crucial that
in exercising such powers, due consideration should be given to certain legal principles, such as: the
delegatus delegare non potest rule prescribing that “a delegate cannot delegate his authority” and
the ultra-vires doctrine , restricting the exceeding of powers given. An empirical investigation was
undertaken with reference to the legal framework within which school principals delegate authority.
The research concludes that as part of education law the understanding of these and other legal
principles is vital to all school principals as it enhances their management skills.

How to Implement Effective Delegation Process?

As first you need to be aware that you need to delegate some of your tasks. The
biggest mistake is when you want to continue to work alone on everything. You
are not a superman. You are a normal human being.

Follow these 6 steps to increase your business productivity next week.

Here are the most important steps that can help you to start delegating.

Step 1: Sort the tasks that can be delegated.

You need to analyze and classify what should you continue to do, and what can
be delegated. You will not lose anything, because the most important tasks will
stay in your full control, but the tasks that are repeatable, easy to be done and
still need to be done on one side, and something that’s not so important for your
attention can be delegated.

Step 2: Determine who will be in charge.

If you want to delegate some of your tasks, you need to have people who can
work on delegated tasks. Simply, find people who will be responsible for some of
your current tasks.

Step 3: Define the task that will be delegated.

Before you delegate some of your tasks you need precisely to define that tasks.
You don’t want to work on unclear or poorly defined tasks. The same is for the
person who will be in charge of that task.

Step 4: Delegate tasks.

The delegation process is transferring the responsibility for the tasks from you to
another person through notifying that person. When you tell the person about
what he needs to do, you need to tell them your clear expectations. This will be
helpful for the person in charge, especially if the delegated task, until now, was
only your responsibility.

Step 5: Monitor and encourage.

The delegation process doesn’t finish when you transfer the responsibility. You
must follow the implementation process. If there is a need for something, your
responsibility is to encourage the person in charge and give him adequate help.

Step 6: Evaluation.

The last step in a delegation process is your responsibility. You need to check
how the delegated task was performed. Should you make some changes to
increase productivity in the future?