Successful delegation is essential for managers because it empowers staff members and increases the income of those who delegate. Additionally, managers can give their staff members experience and control through delegation, particularly when they assign decision-making duties that give workers agency over significant stakes. However, recent studies have indicated that workers may perceive delegated decision-making as a burden they would rather not bear.
We wanted to learn more about the expenses that employers face when they give their employees decision-making authority because of the managerial significance of delegation. In a recent paper published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, we examined this through a series of studies. In particular, we examined the interpersonal costs of delegation, or how it affects the relationship between the delegator and the delegate, as well as possible solutions to the drawbacks of responsibility passing.
The Costs of Delegating Decisions to Others
We asked 181 employees to recall a time when they were asked to make a decision or receive advice in order to gain a better understanding of how delegation affects their desire to collaborate with delegators in the future. Next, we inquired about the participants’ willingness to assist the requester in making a decision in the future. Even when adjusting for the likelihood of a favorable or unfavorable decision outcome, those who remembered being delegated to were less likely to assist the same person with a subsequent decision.
In a different study with 195 participants, we asked them to choose between two candidates for a managerial position after they had first communicated with the candidates online. One candidate asked the participants for their opinions, while the other gave them a choice. Compared to the delegating candidate, participants were much more likely to hire the advice seeker.
Decision-Making Techniques
As it turns out, the participants in our research felt that requests for advice were more fair than requests for decisions, and this perception of unfairness led them to have a more negative opinion of delegators. When a colleague believes that the requester should be responsible for making decisions and all associated responsibilities, it may seem unfair to ask them to do so.
How can managers assign decisions, then, without coming across as unjust? Our research provides three significant considerations:
Assign decisions that will produce favorable results.
We asked 578 participants in a controlled experiment to picture themselves being asked to make a choice or offer advice. Bonuses were a positive outcome for half of the participants, while layoffs were a negative outcome for the other half. After that, the participants gave their assessment of the requester’s fairness.
Assign workers accountability for choices that pertain to their responsibilities.
When there is a contextual justification for transferring decision responsibility, managers can also avoid the interpersonal costs of decision delegation.
We postulated that a request to make a decision would appear more valid and fair when it falls directly within someone’s area of expertise. In one study, for instance, we asked participants to picture themselves working for a bank and their manager assigning them the task of choosing a new branch’s location. We discovered that when their assigned role was in charge of real estate decisions rather than employee benefits, participants thought that this type of delegation was more equitable
Restrict the possible repercussions to coworkers.
Finally, when a decision primarily impacts the delegate alone, managers may be able to avoid the interpersonal costs associated with decision delegation. We tested this theory in a study where 981 participants pictured themselves or their team administrator being questioned about a work-from-home schedule.
In contrast to seeking advice, the interpersonal costs of decision delegation vanished when the decision involved their own schedule. When only they, not their coworkers, could be affected by the decision, people might be more inclined to accept responsibility.
