Point of decision-making and increase his sense of participation in the decision-making process

Delegation of authority

Communication accuracy was found to be greater at higher levels of the firm studied. Although this may have been due in part to the ability of the managers who have reached these higher levels, there were indications that. another factor may have been the greater authority and responsibilities found at these levels. This may bring the subordinate nearer to the point of decision-making and increase his sense of participation in the decision-making process. Even at lower levels, where subordinates believed the power or influence of their superior to be high, communication accuracy was improved. As companies grow it becomes more difficult for top managers to keep tabs on all phases of their operations: many executives in even moderately sized firms would have difficulty if asked to list all phases or products of their firm's activities-an ideal time for them to consider if they can adequately supervise all the functions under their control.One can, however, look upon bypassing as a type of feedback and self-corrective adjustment. Weiss and Jacobson loted in their study of the governmental agency mentioned earlier that if the supervisor of a work group failed to fulfil the needed liaison role for his group, some other member would often take over this necessary communication function.

To counteract this tendency and to bring the subordinate nearer the decision-making point, power commensurate with responsibilities could be delegated to lower levels of the organization. Good communication is as imp0l1ant at the bottom of an organization as at the top. By way of example an executive with Sears Roebuck may find he has as many as forty managers reporting to him-not so that he can supervise them properly but precisely because it avoids the necessity for very close supervision and allows the subordinates to take responsibility and speed up decision-making.

It is interesting to note that the firm which believes most su'ongly in this doctrine-and practises a form of management by objectives-has the highest average power and trust scores of all the firms involved in the study. At the other end of the scale, the firm with lowest trust and power ratings had a managing director who opened all mail before having it distributed to the respective heads of departments allowing them to scrutinize the mail of their juniors before it eventually anived on the desks of the addresses.

Performance targets

Once the details of an individual's responsibilities and duties have been defined it would seem a logical step to find some way of assessing the person's degree of success in carrying out his duties-in other words assessing his performance.

Many people believe that 'management for results' has often failed through the targets being imprecise, e.g. produce at minimum cost instead of a precise target reduce production costs by 5 per cent within 6 months. Precise standards, objective in the eyes of both superiors and subordinates, can reduce the amount of subjective criticism often occurring between superior-subordinate managers. At the same time at least some progress towards achieving objectives should be prompt. Some time ago- when in a longish period of introductory training with my firm one felt irrationally guilty and considerably frustrated by not contributing to the consultants' 'batting average' the activity or fee-reaming ratio.