Delegation and Empowerment

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt am Main, course: MBA in Aviation Management, language: English, abstract: In the course of increasing global competition and cost pressure, companies are constantly forced to become more efficient. Reducing overhead, the number of employees and the streamlining of business units are measures that most companies have used since the early 90¿s, both to ensure their survival and to increase shareholder value. While jobs have been cut, workload in general has rather increased than decreased, with the consequence that less people are left with more work. This holds especially true for the management layer, in which a substitution of human work by machines is not possible. These developments pose the question of how managers in the streamlined businesses of today can cope with the increasing workload, complexities and responsibilities. Delegation & empowerment surely play a major role. A proper application needs to be assured not only for the sake of the company and management but also for the employees whose motivation and performance largely depend on how capable their superiors are in delegating effectively. Therefore it makes sense to analyze how these tools work and how to make best use of them for the mutual benefit of everyone. 1.2 Objective and scope of work The goal of this paper is to give the reader a general understanding of what delegation & empowerment is about. For this purpose, it is first of all necessary to establish clarity about the two terms. Therefore, paragraph 2 deals with the evaluation of different definitions from experts in order to find a clear separation between delegation & empowerment. In the following examination, the reader is supposed to understand the benefits of delegation & empowerment (paragraph 3) and what prerequisites need to be fulfilled to make best use of the tools (paragraph 4). After the description of common pitfalls with possible solutions, paragraph 6 gives clear guidelines for proper delegation in the style of a manager¿s user manual. The seventh chapter finally shows the limits of delegation & empowerment.