Change Management Report: Duty Delegation for Managers

This report critically analyzes the issue of managers' failure to delegate duties to junior staff members in a workplace setting, arguing that this hinders productivity, teamwork, and professional development. It identifies barriers to change, including resistance from managers, lack of communication, inconsistency, and ineffective leadership. The report emphasizes the leadership skills and attributes required for successful change implementation, such as advanced communication, strategic thinking, team management, and adaptability. It concludes that effective duty delegation benefits both managers and subordinates, improves leadership, and enhances the chances of achieving desired outcomes, recommending that managers cultivate these skills to foster a more efficient and collaborative work environment. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers.

Issue at Workplace That Requires Change
Managers have tasks to perform, however, there are some duties that they are required to
delegate to other junior healthcare practitioners. This is not the issue at my workplace as most
managers feel that no one apart from them can successfully complete the tasks. Delegation of
duties is a chance to mentor other staff members as well as coach them so that they can be able to
perform these tasks even in the absence of the top managers. Through duty delegation, the junior
healthcare practitioners become experts in what they are assigned to do thereby enhancing their
personal development. This in turn leads to overall success. According to Suh, Yee and Kim
(2017), duty delegation gives room for the junior staff members to flourish their skills and
abilities as it breaks monotony thereby making them to be more creative and efficient. This paper
therefore discusses how failure to delegate duties to junior staff members by top managers is an
issue that requires change in my workplace, barriers in effecting the change as well as the
leadership skills that are required to facilitate and evaluate the change process and outcomes.
Critical Analysis of The Issue and Why the Change Is Required
Failure to delegate duties to other junior staff members in my workplace is an issue
because it is an obstacle to the productivity of the managers. To help the top managers focus on
bigger goals like research, they must delegate duties to other junior staff members. Failure to
delegate duties in my workplace has hindered effective teamwork hence undermining the success
of the projects. Failing to trust the subordinate to perform tasks on their own has resulted into
low morale, self-doubt, trust deficits as well as productivity slumps. Research conducted by
Skinner et al. (2014) argue that failure to delegate duties by managers will increasingly result
into work overload which causes work burnout on the manager thereby depriving them energy to
excel in their roles. Since managers are required to take on new opportunities, failure to delegate

duties leads to poor quality of work and unsatisfaction. Most managers believe that when they
perform the tasks, it will take lesser time as compared to when they delegate the responsibilities.
While this is true, it is depriving the junior practitioners the chance to discover their skills and
develop professionally. To identify future leaders and successors, duty delegation is a powerful
tool as it helps determine the competent and trustworthy employees who are indispensable.
Failure to delegate duties is therefore an issue as it has hindered the goal achievements and
quality outcomes. Moreover, delegation of duties to the subordinate is an indication of trust and
also helps create a strong team.
Barriers of Effecting the Change
Change involves giving up unhealthy habits, behaviors and practices that may negatively
impact the wellbeing of an institution and adopting improvements and modifications that
enhances its success. Change involves everyone within the institution; therefore, the success of
the change is highly reliant on the efforts of all the members with the institution. However, there
are several barriers that may be encountered when implementing this change.
Resistance from the managers
Although the change is for the benefit of the institution, the managers may be resistance
as they may feel the urge to retain their ego and status quo. According to Bailey and Raelin
(2015), people may resist change due to excess uncertainty, changes to everyday work habits,
loss of control and reputation more so among those who have worked so hard to build their
characters on the status quo. The managers may also be resistance due to competence concerns in
relation to change of duties and obligations. Moreover, the managers may feel threatened and

lack a sense of security in the workplace. It is also important to note that the managers may be
resistance due to unwillingness to work in a different environment.
Lack of Proper Communication
Communication determines the success of the process of effecting the change. It is the
core of both planning and implementing the phases of the change management. Lack of clear,
proper and frequent communication may result into confusion and less enthusiasm for the
change. All the employees involved in this change must be seen as stakeholders, and clear and
decisive information dissemination must be effected so as to ensure the success of the
implementation of the change. Sarver, Cichra and Kline (2015) argue that communicating the
changes being implemented in an institution after discussions with all the employees is crucial in
ensuring that the employees understand what the change is all about and are committed towards
ensuring its success. It is thus important to note that effective communication has the ability to
eliminate change resistance and even drive changes in behaviors and attitudes of the managers
and other employees.
Lack of Consistency
Effecting change in an institution may be frustrating. Lack of consistency is coherently
sketchy and may make the employees to think that there are ulterior motives involved. When
behaviors, ideas and thoughts contradict each other, the commitment of other employees towards
the success of the change implementation may be reduced. Pattern are very crucial in elevating
confidence and thus making other employees trust the outcomes of the change process.
Employees are likely to believe in a change process if the behaviors reflect words (Lachman,
Runnacles, & Dudley, 2015). Consistency creates habits which forms the actions that the

employees are likely to take everyday in ensuring that the change implemented becomes
successful.
Ineffective Leadership
Effective and well-motivated leaders should be able to take the change positively. Since
the change involves the managers, they may fail to be at the forefront of implementing the
change. Although the change is of the benefit of the managers, employees as well as the
institution, some managers may view it as demeaning their positions within the organization
thereby failing to lead the change. According to Lachman, Runnacles and Dudley (2015), the
leaders should provide the necessary information to their juniors and give them a sense of
ownership, however, since the change directly impacts the leaders themselves, they may have
fears and insensitivities that may hinder the implementation of the change. Moreover, the leaders
may feel that they may lose control by giving too much authority over work to their juniors
which may thus lead to ineffective leadership.
Leadership Skills and Attributes Required
Successful implementation of change can only emerge from a sponsorship which is
visible and sustained, effectively addresses the concerns of the employees and also has available
necessary resources which is needed for the change process. The involvement of leaders in the
implementation of a change within the institution is very crucial because they influence the
reactions of the subordinate employees. To help sustain the face of the institution, the values,
beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of the leaders must reflect the change being implemented as it
will determine if the subordinate employees will follow suit or not (Al-Haddas, & Kotnour,
2015). The failure of a change initiative therefore can be highly influenced by weak leadership

within the institution. Therefore, there are several leadership skills and attributes which are
required for the change implementation process to be successful.
Advanced Communication
Excellent communication should be able to flow throughout the process of change. The
leaders must be able to effectively communicate with people from different seniority levels
within and even across the institution. According to Gostin, and Wiley (2016), leaders should be
able to acknowledge and understand the distinctive needs of the employees, how to contextualize
the information as well as how to ensure that the information is relevant to different job duties
and responsibilities of every employee involved in the change process. Although the issue has a
direct impact on some of the leaders within the institution, they are the ones who got the ability
to share the change management practices which best suits the change process as well as
communicate to the top officials the practices and behaviors that require change if the adoption
of the new duty delegation strategy becomes successful. This requires openness, honesty,
straightforwardness and truthfulness throughout the process of change. This will enhance a
solution-oriented way of working and eradicate the culture of hiding issues. Moreover, leaders
should be able to explain the purpose and need for the change and connect to the values of the
institution (Bailey, & Raelin, 2015). It is thus important that leaders to posses the ability to
correspond, influence and communicate the value that the effective change may confer on the
competitive advantage of the institution.
Strategic Thinker
The success of the change process also relies on the strategies that are in place. However,
these strategies are developed by the leaders. Strategic thinking requires creativity and

innovation so that the future vision of the institution may be on right track. Leaders should be
strategic thinkers so that they may be able to draw on the external resources and integrate them
in the current and future strategies of the institution (Metzger, 2014). Moreover, strategic
thinking will enable the leaders to identify emerging opportunities that can help enhance the
change process.
Team Management Skills
Ganta and Manukonda (2014) argue that ensuring successful implementation and
evaluation of the change process requires management from an operational point of view. An
effective leader has the ability to excel in ensuring the change process by promoting teamwork,
resolving conflicting ideas, setting goals and evaluating the success of the process. Leadership in
the change process is all about inspiring other people to adopt the idea and work towards its
success. Teamwork ensures this by improving the relationship between leaders and other
subordinates, increasing accountability as well as providing a learning opportunity for both the
leaders and the subordinates. Since a team consists of people with different ideologies and
thoughts, an effective leader should learn how to manage and accommodate the interests of
everyone within the group so as to improve the process of change.
Adaptability
A leader whose main aim is to ensure that the change process is a success should be able
to deviate from their natural orientation so as to adopt effective skills that are required for the
change process and the situations being faced. According to Post and Blustein (2015), leaders
should be able to embrace new ideas and adapt to the changing circumstances so that they can be
able to effectively lead and manage the change process. Leaders who easily adapt to new ideas

have the ability to hone strategies for dealing with the uncertainties and also change their
behaviors and attitudes so as to accommodate the new situations and challenges that may arise
during the change process. It is important to note that leaders who can easily adapt can change
their leadership approaches so as to accommodate the unpredictable circumstances.
Conclusion
Duty delegation is an action that benefits both the managers and subordinates. However,
in my workplace, failure to delegate duties by the managers is an issue that requires change.
Managers should aim at being an effective leader who improves the skills of all the people
working under their supervision by assigning them tasks and responsibilities that can help them
grow. Effective duty delegation is also essential because in an event the manager is not present,
then the subordinate can effectively take up the roles at hand thereby ensuring there is no
leadership vacuum. Moreover, effective duty delegation improves the chances of achieving the
desired outcomes as it involves different thoughts and ideas. However, there are certain barriers
that may hinder the process of implementing the change. These include lack of consistency,
ineffective leadership, resistance from the managers as well as lack of proper communication
channels. Therefore, to ensure that the change process is successful, there are certain skills and
attributes that must be possessed by the leaders who are in charge. These include advanced
communication skills, strategic thinker, team management skills as well as adaptability.

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