The Enthusiastic Delegator

Laurie J. Mullins, Management & Organisational Behaviour, 3rd edition, 1993

When Charles Turner was told on his fortieth birthday that he was to be promoted to the
position of manager of the Electrical Insulation Materials Sales Department of the big
Clarendon Fibre and Textile Company Limited, his gratification was strongly tempered by
doubts about his own personal adequacy for the job.

Clarendon Fibre and Textile Ltd. had only started to market its ‘high-ohm’ range of electrical
insulation materials two years ago. Though the high-ohm products were not easy to sell -
their small but definite technical advantages over competing products were more or less
cancelled out by higher prices – their entry to the market had been spectacularly successful.
Existing production capacity was already almost fully sold, and a big new plant which would
more than double capacity was under construction and expected to start up in six to nine
months.

Turner was left in no doubt by his sales director that, as manager, he would be expected,
through his small sales force, to ensure that sales of high-ohm products continued to
increase and that most of the extra capacity of the new plant was sold within no more than
a year of production commencing. In addition, he was expected personally to service the
‘house accounts’ – five very large customers who between them were responsible for over
25 percent of all high-ohm purchases. The biggest of them, Bucks Electrical Cables, was
reputed to be extremely awkward to deal with, and one of Turner’s immediate worries in
his new appointment was that he would lose this account and 10 percent of his sales in one
dreadful moment of catastrophe.

This was not his only worry. He wondered how Jim Ferris, who managed the Northern and
Scottish Area, would react to his appointment. Turner did not know Ferris very well, though
his predecessor as sales manager, Sandra Smith, had often spoken of him in glowing terms.
Ferris was a self-confident man in his late twenties, reputedly very dynamic, highly
intelligent, and a brilliant salesman of industrial products. He had achieved remarkable
success in running the Northern and Scottish Area; 44 percent of all high-ohm sales were
made there, as against only 28 percent from the South-and-Midlands Area, which Turner
had managed prior to his promotion. The remaining sales came from the ‘house accounts’
and from exports. Turner in fact wondered why he, and not Ferris, had been promoted.

A further worry was the new plant. He had always felt that it was much too big and he was
extremely doubtful that more than a small part of the extra capacity it provided could be
rapidly taken up in increased sales.

Most of all, however, Turner doubted his own abilities. He knew that he was thorough,
methodical, painstaking and cautious, but these were hardly the qualities essential for
managing a sales operation. His caution tended to make him slow and hesitant. He rarely
produced new ideas and he disliked making decisions unless he had all the facts and had
gone over them several times. He thought he was by nature fitted to keep an existing
successful operation going, but he gravely doubted his ability as a leader of a dynamic
pioneering effort.

Turner had hoped that he would have a long period of changeover, working alongside his
predecessor, Sandra Smith. In fact, Smith was urgently wanted in the new post to which she
had been promoted, and Turner, within a few days of being told of his new appointment,
found himself in sole command. The organization which he inherited was structured as
follows:

Sales Manager
Charles Turner

London Office Manchester Office

South & Midlands Area Export Representative Northern&&Scottish

NNo
Northern Scottish
Manager (vacant) Area
Area Manager
(Selling through J. Ferris
overseas agents)

One of his immediate problems was to fill the South-and-Midlands Area manager vacancy.
There were others, however; the plant had developed an intermittent defect which slowed
production and meant that many deliveries were late. Several customers, notably Bucks
Electrical Cables, were protesting vigorously. Furthermore, the sales director wanted two
major reports. Each, Turner thought, would take at least a week of his time and severely tax
his ability to produce new ideas and constructive proposals as well as his ability to write
lucidly and elegantly. Yet he could not delay their production, or make anything less than a
first-rate job of them, for fear of beginning his new appointment by disappointing the sales
director.

Turner decided that he would ask Ferris to come to London for a few days. Apart from
enabling him to obtain Ferris’s views on the problems he faced, it would give him the
opportunity to try to smooth out any resentment at his promotion.

Much to Turner’s gratification, Ferris was extremely helpful. He made short work of
Turner’s reports. He was an abundant producer of ideas, and soon sketched out what
seemed to Turner an eminently satisfactory set of proposals for both reports. He then
offered to draft the reports for Turner, and dictated both during one afternoon. Turner,
who normally made several laborious pencil drafts before attempting to finalise a report,
was astonished at Ferris’s competence. The drafts seemed quite perfect, and he signed
them and sent them to the sales director.

Ferris next offered to go to ‘pacify’ Bucks Electrical Cables. Turner demurred saying it was
his duty to deal personally with this problem, but Ferris insisted that Turner was too busy
with managerial problems to spare the time. Turner was secretly relieved at not having to
deal with these awkward customers. Ferris later telephoned to say that he had just taken
three Bucks Electrical directors to lunch and they had all parted the best of friends.

Finally Ferris put forward an idea about the area manager vacancy. Ferris suggested that he
would take over the South-and-Midlands Area himself, and his senior representative in the
North, Rebecca Palmer, could be promoted to the position of Northern and Scottish Area
manager. Turner was strongly attracted by the prospect of having Ferris’s services ‘on tap’
in London, and readily agreed to this proposal.

Ferris tackled his new job as South-and-Midlands Area manager with characteristic vigor and
sales were soon moving upwards – indeed the production people had to make Herculean
efforts to squeeze out the additional product needed to cope with the increased orders. He
found time, however, to give substantial personal help to Turner, and Turner came
increasingly to rely on him. Whenever Turner had a problem to solve, a decision to make, or
a report to write, he consulted Ferris. Normally it was Ferris who supplied the solution,
suggested the decision to be adopted, or wrote the report.

Turner often felt guilty about the extent to which he relied on Ferris and sometimes
apologized to him for ‘leaning’ so much on him. Ferris, however, had a soothing answer.
This, he explained, was the normal process of delegation. It would be quite wrong for
Turner to be continually involved in detail problems; his function was to formulate the
problems and leave his subordinates to solve them. Gradually Turner came to accept the
idea that his relationship with Ferris was no more than sound management; he even began
to boast to his manager friends about the delegation that he practiced and the trouble-free
life he led as a result of this.

The new plant and the reorganization

Thus, as the start-up of the new plant became imminent, Turner had a plan ready – Ferris’s
plan. Several new representatives had been recruited and Britain was to be divided into
four sales areas: The South, The Midlands, The North, and Scotland. Ferris would continue
to look after the South, and Palmer the North. A nominee of Ferris, Lauren Murdoch, would
manage Scotland, and The Midlands Area was to be managed by Blackham, who was an
older senior representative recently transferred to Electrical Insulation Sales from another
department.

A new two-person technical service section was to be formed at the London office to service
customers throughout Britain; and an additional export representative was to be engaged to
participate in a drive for more overseas sales.

Ferris took on a wide range of new responsibilities through the reorganization. Apart from
managing the Southern Area and continuing to give personal assistance to Turner, he had
persuaded Turner that in future he should also take responsibility for the ‘house accounts’.
He would also ‘keep an eye on exports’, and would accompany the export representatives
on flying visits overseas when agents needed gingering up. It had been Ferris’s idea that a
technical service section should be formed, and it was natural that he should direct its work.
To free him from too much detailed work in managing the Southern Area, he was given an
extra senior representative. The new organization can be depicted as follows:

Sales Manager
Charles Turner

J.J. Ferris C. Blackham R. Palmer L. Murdoch

House Midlands Area Northern Area Scottish

Accounts Area
& (3 representatives) (3 representatives)
Southern Area (2 representatives)

(4 representatives)

Exports Technical Service

(2 representatives) (2 representatives)

The first few months for the new organization were difficult. The new plant came into
production, but sales hardly rose at all. Ferris visited all the areas to coach representatives
and accompany them on calls to major potential customers. He sent the technical service
representatives out to scour the country, making contact with the development staffs of
possible users of high-ohm materials. He made numerous trips to European and
Commonwealth countries to exhort the overseas agents to greater endeavour.

At length, sales began to increase – at first slowly, but then in a steep curve that took the
new plant up to 80 percent of capacity. Exports were responsible for the biggest part of the
increase, but all the UK areas showed good growth, with the Midlands slightly ahead of the
others.

Turner, who had only been saved from utter despondency during the months of difficulty by
Ferris’s unvarying confidence and optimism, now began to regain his serenity. He was
congratulated by the board on the achievement of his department in selling the output of
the new plant, and was given a very substantial increase in salary. He became rather more
self-confident, though he would still take no decision of importance without reference to
Ferris.

Strains in the organization

The area managers soon discerned something of the extent to which Turner depended on
Ferris. Palmer and Murdoch, who were both protégés of Ferris, regarded it as natural.
Blackham, the Midlands Area manager, however, began to make it clear that he strongly
disapproved of what he called ‘the imbalance of power’ in the department. He pressed for
more responsibility to be delegated to him. In particular, he asked to take over the two
‘house accounts’ in the Midlands Area. He also asked that all the area managers should be
consulted before important decisions were taken.

On Ferris’s advice, Turner told Blackham that he had enough to do already in developing
sales in the Midlands without taking over the ‘house accounts’. In any case, these important
customers were best served by someone they knew and trusted. Turner and Ferris agreed,
however, that more consultation with the area manager was desirable and monthly ‘area
manager meetings’ were instituted.

These did little to decrease Blackham’s dissatisfaction. Though Turner nominally took the
chair, it was Ferris who really conducted the meetings. Blackham resented this deeply, but
what riled him still more was that it was usually obvious that, irrespective of what the other
managers said, Turner was going to make his decisions according to whatever advice Ferris
gave him. Often it was clear that Turner and Ferris had already discussed and decided issues
before the meeting.

Blackham showed his dissatisfaction with the meetings by taunting Ferris and Turner with
ironic asides and frequent sardonic laughter. This did not appear to worry Ferris, but it
upset Turner.

Accordingly, while Ferris was away on a trip abroad, Turner sent for Blackham and appealed
to him to cooperate with himself and Ferris. Blackham bitterly attacked Ferris, saying that he
had deliberately taken advantage of Turner’s good nature to build up his own personal
‘empire’ within the department. Turner protested that this was not the case; it was just
that he believed in delegation and since Ferris was exceptionally able, experienced,
energetic and willing to accept responsibility, it was natural that considerable responsibility
should be delegated to him.

Blackham laughed sardonically. Turner did not delegate responsibility, he said, he abdicated
it. Ferris did not just accept responsibility, he made a series of takeover bids for it. Turner
defended the system. At least it worked, he said. The department had great successes to
its credit. Blackham insisted that he was just as able and willing to accept responsibility as
Ferris. It was unfair of Turner to delegate only to Ferris. The other area managers should be
given the chance to show what they could do.

The meeting ended inconclusively, but Turner, who prided himself on being fair-minded,
was half-persuaded that Blackham and the other area mangers should be given more
responsibility. As soon as Ferris returned, he consulted him on what changes in organization
might be made.

Ferris strongly opposed giving any further responsibility to the area managers, especially to
Blackham, whose recent behaviour, he said, must make his judgement and temperament
strongly suspect. What was wrong in the department was that the particular responsibilities
he himself carried were not accompanied by appropriate formal authority. Ferris therefore
proposed that he should be appointed deputy manager of the department. He was not
seeking extra salary and would be quite content with only a status promotion, but he felt
that the time had come for it to be made clear that he was senior to Blackham and the other
area managers.

This idea appealed to Turner. He felt it was only right that Ferris should be given some form
of promotion. He also believed that promotion for Ferris might silence some of Blackham’s
criticisms. He therefore went to ask the Sales Director for permission to create the new
position of deputy manager, and for Ferris to be promoted to this position.

The Sales Director demurred. He said he felt that Turner’s department was too small to
warrant the appointment of a full-time deputy manager, and in any case, Ferris was rather
young to be promoted to such a post over the heads of older managers such as Blackham.

Turner pressed his case by outlining the range of duties undertaken by Ferris. The Sales
Director questioned him closely upon this, and Turner was forced to reveal a great deal
about the organization of the department, and of his relationship with Ferris. He also
mentioned his troubles with Blackham.

The Sales Director was obviously not at all pleased with what he had discovered. He said “I
have always assumed that since your department had produced good results, its
organization, staffing and personal relationships have been satisfactory. Now I must
consider whether or not I should intervene and impose changes.”

Questions:

1. What is the main issue or problem in this case?

2. What other issues or problems can be identified in this case?
3. What relevant theories may be applied, in order to develop a better understanding of
this case?
4. What courses of action might be proposed as possible solutions? (Brainstorming
exercise)
5. What is the preferred solution for this case? In your answer, provide a detailed
outline of your implementation plan.