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Control of People in Organisations

We stressed at the start of this resource that businesses want people because of the contribution they can make to help the business carry out its activities. Most businesses will have various aims and objectives and it is important that people in the organisation know these and works towards them.

There is no point, for example, for a business to want to try to improve the quality of the service that they provide if workers are rude to customers or do not give them the best quality service when dealing with them.

The service that workers provide might say a great deal about the business and can often make a difference between a poor experience (and lack of repeat custom) and a good experience and repeated sales. Copyright: Roger Kirby, from stock.xchng.

You may have been in a situation in a shop or other type of business where you feel that you have not been given the best service or been attended to properly. Businesses might, therefore be concerned to try and make sure that workers do what they are supposed to do.

There has to be a balance between controlling workers and giving them a degree of trust that they will do their jobs properly. Businesses have various ways that they seek to control their workers.

Span of control

In any business organisation, it is highly likely that a person will have responsibility for managing a number of other people in the organisation. In some cases it might just be the responsibility for looking after one other person and in other cases it might be very many - possibly hundreds. The number of people that one person has responsibility for is termed the span of control. The more people an individual has responsibility for the wider the span of control is said to be.

In this example, the manager is responsible for 5 other people who are referred to as 'subordinates'. The span of control would be 5 in this case.

Delegation

It might seem obvious to suggest that one person cannot do everything in a business. Tasks have to be given to other people to do. When this happens there is a transfer of some level of authority. You might, for example, have been in a shop and the cashier has had to ask their manager or supervisor if s/he will come and sign something or do something with the till. This might relate to a refund or the exchange of a product, for example. If a worker is given the authority to be able to carry out these types of task it is referred to as delegation.

Responsibility and authority

A person can delegate the authority for another person to be able to carry out a certain task. What they cannot do is delegate responsibility. Ultimately, the responsibility for the way the business operates lies with those who own the business or who have been given the responsibility to carry out such a task. Exactly what those responsibilities are might be specified in a person's job description.

Delegation is often seen as an important way to motivate staff. If a person has various tasks delegated to them it can raise their self esteem, help them to develop their skills and knowledge and also help them to develop their potential. It might act as a form of job enrichment.

What delegation is not is a means of shifting the blame for problems or difficulties when things go wrong to other people or for making excuses.

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