Microdelegation

If you work in almost any role in a project-oriented organization, you probably know too well what micromanagement means. Briefly, micromanagement is inappropriate interference by supervisors in the work of subordinates. [Brenner 2007.1] It is a style of supervision in which the supervisor insists on receiving reports of progress on the subordinate's work that are so detailed and frequent that they deprive the subordinate of any meaningful degree of autonomy. The demands of the supervisor can become so burdensome that they constrain the subordinate's productivity. In extreme cases, involvement of the supervisor in the work of the subordinate can be so intense that it compromises the supervisor's own performance. Although this description is expressed in terms of an individual subordinate, it applies to subordinate groups or teams as well.

Microdelegation is to delegation as micromanagement is to management. To delegate to someone is to invest that person with some degree of Responsibility, Authority, and Accountability relative to some element of the organizational mission. [Brenner 2024.1] For example, the Chief Financial Officer might delegate to you the task of coordinating a "red team" review of the quarterly financial reports. Then, to some extent, you would be responsible for organizing the review — recruiting a team, setting a time, gathering materials, producing a report, and so on.

To microdelegate is therefore to delegate in such a way as to compromise the autonomy of the delegatee. The microdelegating supervisors in our example omit no detail in charging their subordinates — they list the titles of the financial reports, they specify the conference rooms, the names of the attendees, the dates and times of the meetings, and so on.

My use of the term microdelegation

Having never seen the word microdelegation, I felt free to define it in this way. But as it turns out, others have already used it in other ways. Emal uses the term to denote a more effective style of delegation. [Emal 2024] In almost the opposite sense, more closely aligned to how I use the term here, Morrison notes that, "Learning and growth can only happen if there's space for it."

Now, having learned that the term is in use in such different ways, I feel free to appropriate it in the way I need it here.

The costs of microdelegating

The Microdelegation is to delegation as
micromanagement is to managementurge to microdelegate probably springs from sources similar to the sources of the urge to micromanage. It's reasonable to suppose that the microdelegator fails to balance two attributes of microdelegation — first, the approach to the task, and second, the self-esteem of the subordinate.

The approach to the task

Microdelegators can tend to be resistant to the change in their own roles that is an element of any healthy delegation. As Morrison puts it, "I wonder if micro-delegation, like micromanagement, reflects a reluctance to let go of power and control and brings those unconscious trust issues into play that can get in the way of development and autonomous working." Except in highly regulated activities, the belief that the delegator knows the only feasible approach to the task is almost surely unjustified.

The self-esteem of the subordinate

The microdelegator unintentionally communicates to the subordinate an unspoken message of distrust in the subordinate. In Morrison's terms, the "…temptation to impart experience or knowledge in order to ensure something comes out exactly as if you'd done it yourself can make the person on the receiving end feel undervalued, untrusted, while eroding autonomy, creating tension, etc etc etc etc…"

In this way, a pattern of microdelegation can be a contributing factor in elevated turnover and substandard performance among delegatees.

Last words

As a technique of covert bullying, some abusers take actions that appear to be microdelegation. They might do this because the penalties for microdelegation are less severe than the penalties for bullying. But be clear: it isn't microdelegation — it's bullying.

In genuine microdelegation, by unintentionally sending a message of distrust of the delegatee, the microdelegator can cause the subordinate to lack confidence whenever the subordinate's process deviates in any way from the subordinate's perception of the microdelegator's process. That loss of confidence can morph into risk aversion and a feeling of being psychologically unsafe. And from there, it's a short step to organizational rigidity and obsolescence.  Top    Next Issue

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Footnotes

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