Analysis of Delegation Issues and Recommendations for ACMA Call Center

This case study analyzes the human resource management challenges faced by ACMA, a travel call center planning to expand its workforce. The report focuses on the critical issue of delegation, exploring its significance in organizational structure, leadership, and employee performance. The study delves into the delegation process, highlighting advantages like building trust and stimulating creativity, while also acknowledging potential disadvantages such as miscommunication and misuse of power. Recommendations include leadership training, reducing the span of control, incorporating open communication, and implementing effective performance management systems to address these issues. The case study emphasizes the need for ACMA to address these challenges effectively to ensure a smooth expansion and improve overall organizational efficiency.

Running Head: Human resource management
Management Assignment
Case Study – ACMA Call center

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Delegation........................................................................................................................................5
Delegation and leadership................................................................................................................5
Delegation process...........................................................................................................................5
Delegation of tasks.......................................................................................................................5
Obligation.....................................................................................................................................6
Accountability..............................................................................................................................6
Advantages of Delegation................................................................................................................6
Builds trust...................................................................................................................................6
Empowerment..............................................................................................................................6
Stimulates creativity.....................................................................................................................7
Focus on core activities................................................................................................................7
Efficient accomplishment of goals...............................................................................................7
Disadvantages of delegation............................................................................................................7
Quality of work............................................................................................................................7
Miscommunication.......................................................................................................................8
Burden on employees...................................................................................................................8
Misuse of power...........................................................................................................................8

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Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Training to leaders.......................................................................................................................8
Reduce span of control.................................................................................................................9
Incorporate open communication.................................................................................................9
Performance management............................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Executive Summary
ACMA is a travel call center that provides for flights and accommodation facilities for travelers
internationally as well as domestically. At present, the center is staffed with 300 employees and
the organization is planning expansion to 400 employees in a span of one year.
Like any other organization, currently, ACMA is facing issues regarding communication,
coaching delegation and performance management. All of these are causing various problems
among the employees regarding staff engagement. Therefore, it is imperative that ACMA
effectively addresses these issues and aims to resolve them. This report throws light on the
importance of efficient delegation of work in an organization and recommends ACMA strategies
that can help overcome this issue.

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Introduction
Human resource management, in any organization, refers to the process of staffing, recruiting,
managing performance, training and development, induction, motivating, compensating,
communicating and addressing grievance of employees among others (Hendry, 2012). This
people management is one of the most crucial tasks and hence HR is one of the most significant
departments of any organization.
In this case study, it has been noticed that ACMA call center is facing a variety of issues
including communication, delegation, and coaching and performance management. The
organization has major expansion plans for the next one year and hence it is imperative that these
issues are addressed efficiently.
This report throws light on the issue of delegation faced by ACMA. It has been noted that every
line manager has a maximum of 10 direct reports. Efficiency in delegation of work plays a
crucial role in every organization as it directly affects organizational culture and employee
performance (Riisgaard, 2017). In fact delegation is an important aspect of leadership within an
organization.

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Delegation
Delegation is the process of assigning any responsibility or authority to one person by another
person in an organization. Most organizations follow a hierarchical organizational structure
where every employee has certain subordinates and superiors. In this structure, delegation
becomes very crucial as it helps in clearly defining the roles and responsibility of every
employee in the organization.
Delegation and leadership
Delegation is one of the core components of leadership in an organization. The important task of
a leader or a manager is to ensure that the team effectively works together and achieves
organizational goals (Schafer, 2013). This is possible when the leader is competent enough to
delegate responsibilities within the team.
Every leader has a different style of delegating authority and responsibility to his or her
followers. Delegation leadership style is also known as laissez fair leadership. In this leadership
style, the leader delegates a lot of responsibilities to his followers (Silcox, 2015). This is
specifically beneficial for employees who are self-motivated and helps to increase satisfaction at
work.
Delegation process
Delegation in every organization must follow a specific procedure. Ambiguousness in delegation
may lead to miscommunication among employees and will adversely impact accomplishment of
goals Nahavandi, 2016). There are three important steps in delegation procedure as below.
Delegation of tasks
The very first step involves assignment of tasks to the leader. Every leader must decide that out
of all the tasks that are needed to be accomplished, which ones can be delegated to subordinates.
Strategically crucial tasks cannot be delegated as they require a higher level of expertise.
Delegation of tasks should also depend on the skills and abilities of the subordinate (Mergenthal,
2016).

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Obligation
Once the tasks have been delegated, a creation of obligation becomes important. This requires
the leaders or managers to make sure that the employees take complete responsibility of the tasks
assigned to them (Friedrich, 2016). At this point, the subordinate must accept the tasks that are
assigned to them and start working on them.
Accountability
The process of delegation ends at this step. Once the tasks have been assigned, it is important
that the subordinates are held accountable for the successful or unsuccessful completion of the
task (Gibbs, 2017). The employees must make sure that the tasks are completed and they must be
answerable to their leaders about the every aspect of the task delegated to them.
Advantages of Delegation
There are various advantages to delegation and it plays a vital role in every organization. It is a
crucial process for the accomplishment of organizational goals. It offers several advantages as
below.
Builds trust
Delegating tasks to employees is a way of building trust and letting employees know the same.
Whenever a manager is delegating any important task to his subordinate, he is placing a lot of
trust in that employee. This makes the employees feel motivated to accomplish that task and
perform better (Viktoria, 2014). This trust also creates a better organizational culture and
improves overall team efficiency (Weibel, 2016).
Empowerment
Delegating tasks to employees make them feel empowered and capable of accomplishing. This is
a major source of motivation for employees and ensures that employees remain inspired. It gives
employees a sense of power which is a performance driving factor (Luoh, 2014).

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Stimulates creativity
Creativity at work is very crucial as it gives way to organizational growth. Every employee has a
different way of achieving goals and performing specific tasks. Delegating tasks to employees
stimulates their levels of creativity. Innovation among employees then becomes prominent and
helps in achieving organizational goals (Moon, 2016).
Focus on core activities
When managers are allowed to delegate tasks to employees, it eases their plates. When they
become free from performing routine tasks, they can increase focus on core activities and other
tasks which are strategically important and require tactical decision making.
Efficient accomplishment of goals
Organizational goals are better accomplished when the work is divided in the entire organization
and not just a few people. This is where delegation comes into picture. If every managers sets out
to complete the tasks assigned, the time taken by the firm to accomplish the same goals would be
must higher (Burke, 2017).
Disadvantages of delegation
Just like every other organization process, delegation also has certain disadvantages. Efficient
delegation is very crucial to the business as it makes sure that employees or managers are not
over-worked. Inefficient delegation of tasks to employees can lead to severe problems. Few
disadvantages of delegation are as below.
Quality of work
Quality of work delegated to a subordinate may or may not be as competent as that of the
manager. Therefore if a lot of tasks continuously get delegated to employees or if strategically
important tasks get delegated then it can adversely impact the quality of work done in the team.
Which in turn would affect the organization’s performance.

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Miscommunication
Delegation of tasks may lead to miscommunication among employees. And this might affect the
overall fulfillment of the objective. An employee may not completely understand the task given
or the manager may not be able to effectively describe the task. Either way, it affects the team’s
performance and hampers organizational growth (Stubbe, 2017).
Burden on employees
If the manager delegates excessive work to the subordinates, then it can significantly increase the
burden on employees. This will adversely impact their performance. Excessive work delegated to
a single employee can cause demotivation and lack of enthusiasm to perform. Many times,
managers might delegate tasks to move away from their responsibilities. In such a scenario, they
delegate a lot of work on employees and set wrong examples of leadership.
Misuse of power
Once the employee has been trusted with important tasks that are delegated, he or she may
misuse that power. It becomes very important that the leaders are careful about the tasks that
they delegate. More often than not, delegation of tasks requires sharing of confidential
information. The employee may misuse this power which can severely impact the organization.
Recommendations
Given the current scenario at ACMA, it is important that immediate attention is paid to the issue
of delegation.
Training to leaders
It has been noticed in the case, that most line manager are promoted from within the business and
have very limited leadership skills. Hence, it becomes important that these leaders are given
appropriate training (Miner, 2014). This training should include the following modules:
1. To gain an understanding of which tasks can be delegated
2. To learn how to efficiently select the right employee for delegation of tasks

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3. To know what is the correct time of delegating tasks
4. To analyze how much work can be delegated to an employee at a single point of time.
5. To understand how to create responsibility and accountability after delegating tasks
6. To learn how to most effectively use their time upon delegation of tasks.
Reduce span of control
Span of control refers to the number of employees that are reporting to one person in an
organization. ACMA leaders have a maximum of 10 employees who directly report to them. It is
important to keep in mind that these leaders at ACMA are new leaders who have been given
little or no training. Taking responsibility of 10 employees is a tedious task and hence this
number should be reduced to 6 employees.
A higher span of control often makes it difficult for the leader to manage a big team. This also
affects organization’s productivity as the same task is now divided among more people implying
that the time devoted by employees is lower (Thiel, 2016). Assigning too many subordinates to
one manager requires more time of the manager to oversee their work and make decisions.
Hence optimal span of control is a very important aspect in efficient delegation of work.
Incorporate open communication
Communication is critical in the delegation of work. Few steps recommended to ACMA to
enhance and improvise communication are as below:
1. The roles of the line managers must be clearly communicated
2. There should be no miscommunication about the authority of the line managers
3. Every task delegated must be clear and specific. Ambiguous delegation leads to
inefficient performance.
4. Written communication always takes precedence over verbal communication. All crucial
discussions must be done over emails.
Selection of leaders
Selection of leaders is a very crucial task that the top management at ACMA must undertake
with utmost efficiency. Rather than hiring line managers who have little or no leadership

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experience, employees with leadership qualities and team management abilities must be hired as
leaders. This would eventually lead to the growth of ACMA. It is also imperative that leaders
hired must be well acquainted with the ACMA culture and its employees. This would ensure
trust in the leader that would lead to better performance.
Performance management
It has been noticed in the case that the employees at ACMA are also facing issues with
performance management. Without effective performance management by the company,
delegating of tasks can become increasingly difficult and lead to demotivation among
employees. Whenever a line manager is delegating any task to the subordinates, it becomes the
manager’s responsibility to make sure that the subordinates take complete responsibility and are
held accountable for the task. This in turn requires efficient performance management and
deserved appraisals from the manager. If employees performing well are rewarded properly then
they are inspired to work harder and achieve their goals. Performance management also helps
employees get a genuine and honest feedback about their performance as well as behavior. This
further establishes clarity which helps employees improvise and deliver better performance.
Conclusion
Delegation of work involves the process of assigning responsibility and giving authority to
subordinates of an organization by their superiors or managers. This is an important managerial
aspect as it makes sure that the work is efficiently divided in the organization and roles and
responsibilities of employees are clear and well defined.
Among various other issues faced by ACMA, delegation of work among line managers and their
subordinates have been explained in this report. At ACMA, the line managers are selected and
promoted from within the business and each line manager has maximum 10 people reporting to
them. All the line managers are relatively new leaders with little or no leadership development.
Firstly, ACMA must make sure that efficient training is provided to all its line mangers throwing
light upon which tasks can be delegated, to whom and at what time. Secondly, the span of
control of the line managers must be reduced to 6 people so they can manage the team more
efficiently. Thirdly, efficient performance measurement and management techniques must be in

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place to track, monitor control and improve employee performance. And lastly, the firm must
incorporate a culture of open communication among employees so that the responsibilities are
clear and the organizational goals are effectively accomplished.