CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0         BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Management is an important process that ensure the existence of an organization and the achievement of its goals and objective. According to  Nwachukwu (1988) management is the “guidance or direction of people toward organizational goal or objectives”.   Follet (1987) defined management as “the art of getting things done through people”.

The basic managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting all involved the display of organizational skills, administrative fact, personal initiative, executive talent and dynamism on the part of the manager.  This therefore calls for delegation of authority to his or her inferior officers.

Delegation according to Nwachukwu (1988) is “the organizational process that permit the transfer of authority from a superior to a subordinate”. Delegation of authority empowers a subordinate to make commitments use resources and take action in relation to duties assigned to him.  It also enables the superior to share responsibility with his subordinate. Nwachukwu (1988) points out that when one delegates three major factors are implicit, thus:

i.        There is assignment of responsibility

ii.       There is delegation of authority

iii.       There is creation of accountability.

          According to Bartol and Martin (1987) “Delegation is a mean of vertical coordination related to issue of decentralization and centralization.  It is the assignment of part of managers work to others along with both the responsibility from one level of the organization to the next lower level”.

          Delegation of authority is an inevitable process in any organization big or small public or private, this is because no individual, however, talented can accomplished or claim to have adequate solution to day to day problem of the organization which he or she is involved. This commensurate with the view of  Nwachukwu (1988) when he said “Delegation originates from the fact that one person alone cannot successfully discharge all the responsibility in an organization”.  The answer to these organizational problems and ways to discharge responsibilities are best provided through efficient delegation. This is because some specific areas of organizational activities can best be handled by specialist for an accounting, marketing, technical activities etc.

          The Manager has a lot of duties to these specialists who in turn efficiently carry out the assigned tasks with the due major of authority delegated to them.

          Furthermore, delegation is an attitude of the mind and a way of life of every goal seeking manager According to Koontz and O. Donnel (1980) delegation is the due for efficient management and it determines how well one manages”.  The manager’s competence is not judged by the work he actually does. This implies delegation on his part to achieve standard result from those to whom duties and authority are transferred.  Hence, the person who delegates should ensure that the subordinate to whom authority is delegated perform it properly by due exercised authority.

          One of the major advantages of delegation of authority is that it hasten decision making at all levels within the general policy frame work laid by the top management. It also reduces the burden of key officials in tackling routine matters and enable item to concentrate on vital aspect of planning, policy making and overall control, thereby ensuring administrative convenience. Delegation stimulates subordinates to perform better if other incentives are also given it also has a tonic effect on the psychological disposition on the subordinates. When delegating authority, the manager should assign responsibility, which the subordinate can perform.  He should be able to recognized the special abilities and limitations of his subordinate, this will help to know which task to delegate and to whom and will also save him from the frustrating experience of trying to fit a square peg in to a round hole. A wise manager who has the discretion to decide how many and which task to delegate should also know whom to delegate certain task to.

          To perform any delegated task a subordinate must have some power or authority. Therefore a manager who wants to delegate should make sure that the authority delegated is enough to ensure the efficient performance of the tasks given to the subordinates.

1.01 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF KADUNA POLYTECHNIC

Kaduna Polytechnic as it is known today had developed from a humble nucleus of Kaduna Technical Institutes established in 1956.  The Kaduna Polytechnic attained legal status i.e as a Polytechnic with the promulgation of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria Decree No. 20 of 1968 which give effect to the establishment of the Polytechnic  in April 1986.  The first principal Mr. F.J.Hawley was appointed in December 1965 and he assumed duty in August 1966.

          Following the creation of State in 1967 the Polytechnic and other institution owned by the former Northern Nigeria Government came under the management of the defunct Interim Common Service Agency (ICSM). The provisions of Decree No. 20 of 1968 led the enlargement of Kaduna Polytechnic to include six (6) other schools owned by the Northern Nigeria Government thus by 1968 the Polytechnic had two Colleges as follows:

1.       College of Science and Technology:  This comprised of the Polytechnic Kaduna and the School of Irrigation Sokoto

2.       College of Administrative and Business Studies.

          This was made up of Staff Development Centre Kaduna, Local Government Training School, Zaria. Cooperative Training School Zaria Social Welfare Training Centre Zaria and Community Development Institute, Zaria.

          In 1990 a new College, the College of Engineering was created out of the former College of Science and Technology bringing the total number of Colleges to (4) at present. The component units of the Polytechnic were restructured by the revised Decree No. 83 of 1979 to give legal recognition of the Polytechnic Board of Governors.

          The hexagonal shape of the logo symbolizes the then six northern state created out of the defunct Northern Region the original owners of the Polytechnic.  It was until its take over by the Federal Government in 1991 owned and financed by the Northern State Government. The Polytechnic crest the Spider “Gizogizo” designed by a local artist named Aloysius Eneche. The “Gizogizo” in many Nigeria and West African Folklore symbolize a hero which by its sharpness industry and tenacity always came top.  This aptly symbolises Kaduna Polytechnic desire to excel in its performance and spread its services.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

          The general supervision and control of the Polytechnic is vested in Governing Council    which comprises representation from the government and the private sectors. The Rector is the Chief Executive of the institution in the performance of his duties he is assisted by a Management Committee comprising of two Deputy Rectors that is Deputy Rector Academic and Administration, the Registrar of the Polytechnic, Librarian, the College Directors, the Director of Medical and Health Services and the Director of Works.

          The Four (4) College of Kaduna Polytechnic are located within the Kaduna Metropolis.  The College of Science and Technology (CST) and the College of Engineering (COE) are located on the main campus in Tudun Wada, the College of Business and Management Studies (CBMS) along the Golf Course Road Ungwar Rimi with the Department of Special and Rehabilitative Education of that college on Kachia Kaduna Bye-Pass while the College of Environmental Studies (CES) is located along Aliyu Makama road, Barnawa. Each college is headed by a Director who is responsible to the Rector for day to day administration of the college. The colleges are organized into a schools and academic departments there are at present nine schools each headed by a Dean and thirty departments headed by heads of department.  The Polytechnic which started at inception with eight hundred and ninety four (894) students enrolment in nine (9) academic department has today grown to thirty (30) academic department with a total students enrolment of about seventeen thousand (17,000) and offering one hundred and ninety four (194) programmes at levels of degree of B. Education and NCE Technical, Professional Diploma , Higher National Diploma (HND) and National Diploma (ND) in engineering Architecture, Building Sciences, Humanities and Certificate programmes.  Kaduna Polytechnic has further mounted a number of Post-Graduate programmes in areas of cooperative studies urban and regional planning, Land Survey Building Marketing, Purchasing and Supply.  During the 1998/99 the Academic Board approved the task of Post-Graduate Studies in Public Administration, Business Administration and Management studies in 1995. The Polytechnic started the ever NBTE approved post-HND programme in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Recently approval has been granted to Kaduna Polytechnic by NBTE to mount post-HND programme in Civil Engineering.

          The College and Constituents schools and department of the Polytechnic are listed hereunder.

a.       School of Business Studies

          i)        Department of Accounting and Finance

          ii)       Department of Business Administration

b.       School of Management Studies

          i)        Department of Marketing, Purchasing and Supply

          ii)       Department of Management Studies

iii)             Department of Mass Communication and Languages

c.       School of Administrative Studies and Social Sciences

          i)        Department of Public Administration

          ii)       Department of Local Government Studies

iii)             Department of Social Development and Cooperative Studies

iv)            Department of Special and Rehabilitative Education

College of Engineering

a)       School of Industrial Engineering

          i)        Department of Chemical Engineering

          ii)       Department of Electrical Engineering

iii)             Department of Mechanical Engineering

b)       School of Natural Resource Engineering

          i)        Department of Agricultural Engineering

          ii)       Department of Civil Engineering

iii)             Department of Mineral Resource Engineering

c)       Colleges of Environmental Studies

          i)        Department of Architecture

          ii)       Department of Building and Quantity Surveying

iii)             Department of Urban and Regional Planning

d)       School of Geodesy and Land Administration

          i)        Department of Environmental Science

          ii)       Department of Land Economy

iii)             Department of Topographic Science

e)       College of Science and Technology

          i)        School of Education and Science

          ii)     &nb

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