Strategic Challenges in Public Administration

To Delegate or Not to Delegate?

Procedure: Read each of the following scenarios and determine whether the manager should delegate. If yes, analyze whether the delegation should be to an individual or a team.

Scenario 1: You are a manager in an internal revenue district office. You manage the agency’s credit functions using a computerized accounting system, and you have a bookkeeper and a newly hired accounts payable clerk as your team. The director wants your recommendation for the purchase of a new accounting software package. You have a month to share your recommendations.

Scenario 2: You are the field manager for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and your job is to supervise ten veteran field agents. The current administration has rolled out a performance improvement project for all Federal agencies at the same time the Department of Justice is going through a fiscal audit. You are the point person for your office deadlines. What do you do?

Scenario 3: You are the operations manager in the local nonprofit agency that coordinates efforts and resources for local animal shelters and rescue organizations within the city. Your department has four shift supervisors (two per shift) and ten field workers. A critical funding resource fell through and you need to respond to their decision. Two of the field workers are out sick and another one is on vacation. Your monthly report to the City Council is due in one week and you see a backlog of unanswered field calls on animal-related issues.

Tasks

Write a memo to identify and describe in which of these scenarios you would delegate and in which you would not.
Explain the reasons you would or would not delegate the tasks in each of the three scenarios.
In the scenarios that you choose to delegate, explain in detail whether the delegation should be to an individual or a team and provide rationale for your answer.