AUTHORITY & DELEGATION OF
AUTHORITY

WHAT IS AUTHORITY??
 Authority is the power or right to give orders, make
decisions, and enforce obedience.
 It allows its holder to action certain designated
ways and to directly influence the action of others
through orders.
 It allows its holder to allocate the organization’s
resources in order to achieve organizational goals.

TYPES OF AUTHORITY
 The three main types of authorities that exist within
an organization are:
1. Line Authority
2. Staff Authority
3. Functional Authority

LINE AUTHORITY
 Most fundamental authority within an organization
that reflects existing superior-subordinate
relationships.
 It consists of right to make decisions and to give
order concerning the production, sales or finance
related behavior of subordinates.

STAFF AUTHORITY
 Have right to advice and assist those who possess
line authority as well as other staff personnel.
 Enable improvement in effectiveness of line
personnel to perform required task.

FUNCTIONAL AUTHORITY
 Authority exist for only a designated amount of time
and covers only specific tasks.
 Consists of right to give orders within a segment of
organization in which their right is normally non-
existent.

LINE and STAFF
AUTHORITY
RELATIONSHIP
!!

CONFLICTS IN LINE & STAFF AUTHORITY
 From the view point of line personnel, conflict is
created because staff personnel tend to
1. assume line authority
2. Steals credit for success
3. fail to keep line personnel informed of
the activities
4. do not see the whole picture

 RESPONSIBILITY & AUTHORITY
DIFFERENCE??

WHERE DOES AUTHORITY COME FROM??
 It’s a concept of power.
 Power + Legitimacy = Authority
 Power is expressed in command &
obedience relationship.
• legitimacy is the act of arrangement
that is regarded useful for those who
are affected by it.

DELEGATION
OF
AUTHORITY

DELEGATION??
 It’s the grant of authority by one party(the
delegator) to another party (the delegatee )
 In terms of management, it means the sharing or
transfer of authority and the associated
responsibility, from an employer or superior(who
has the right to delegate) to an employee or
subordinate.

DEFINITION
 The delegation of authority is a
process wherein the manager
assigns responsibility to its
subordinates along with the certain
authority to accomplishing the task
on the manager’s behalf.

PROCESS OF DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY
 This comprises of four stages

1. ASSIGNMENT OF DUTIES TO SUBORDINATES
 Before the actual delegation of authority, the
delegator must decide on the duties which he
wants to subordinates to perform. Here, the
manager lists the activities to be performed along
with the targets to be achieved, the same is spelled
out to the subordinates.
 Duties are assigned as per their job roles

2. TRANSFER OF AUTHORITY
 An adequate authority is delegated to the
subordinate.
 The Manager must make sure; that authority is
strictly delegated just to perform the responsibility,
as more authority may lead to misuse.

3. ACCEPTANCE OF ASSIGNMENT
 Subordinate either accepts or refuses the task
assigned by superior.
 If refused move onto another subordinate ready to
accept the task and authority of it.
 next, it reaches its last stage.

4. ACCOUNTABILITY
 The delegation process ends at creation on
obligation on the part of subordinate to perform
his/her duties.
 In the stage, the subordinate becomes responsible
for completion of duty and is accountable to
superior for his/her performance.

ELEMENTS OF DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

PRINCIPLES OF DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

ADVANTAGES OF DELEGATION
 Helps is effective functioning
 Results in quick results
 Reduction in managerial load
 Leads for specialized service
 Motivational factor
 Aid to employee development
 Training ground for executive ability

DISADVANTAGES OF DELEGATION
 Central management is far removed hence makes it
difficult to pinpoint major problems when they
occur
 Problem in area of coordination as resulting in
confusion

THANK YOU