When the work of an office manager increases so much that he cannot cope with it, he may divide the work among his subordinates. During, the course of division he expects that each subordinate will do the job as he himself would have done.
For effective delegation, the following principles are to be observed: (a) Principle of delegation by result expected – The duties assigned during the course of delegation must be directed for the attainment of the organizational objective.
"A man's legs should be long enough to reach the ground and no longer." This statement reveals that delegation cannot be undertaken to an unlimited extent and there are certain limits to delegation. The following points are to be kept in mind while determining the extent of delegation:
Delegation is essential regardless the types of organisation. Delegation has been practiced since the time immemorial whether it is a government undertaking or private enterprises.
Delegation can be effective if the barriers like lack of proper communication, lack of proper planning, ambiguous duties, tack of training and lack of knowledge about the goal of the enterprise are removed. Delegation is described as an art and it can be made effective if the following essentials are attained:
Authority is the key to managerial job. It denotes the right to make decision and command subordinates to conform these decisions. When the office manager is over burdened with official assignments, he may allocate or divide it among the subordinates to get the work done by them.