Delegation of authority—“management by objectives”—is the newer style of command since World War II. The lower-level commanders are given goals but are allowed to choose how to achieve them. This was only enabled by improved communication and control measures.
The idea behind it seem to date to the wars against Napoleon but could at first only be a applied to the higher leaders. To apply this idea to leaders lower in the hierarchy needed technological advances:
“It was not until the innovations in weapons technology from the late 1850s onwards, above all the introduction of the breechloading rifle and the resulting battlefield revolution (dissolution of the closed form in favor of a dispersed fighting style, introduction of the rifle squad instead of the company or even battalion column as the main fighting form of the infantry), that the lower troop leaders were forced, as it were, to take on more responsibility and initiative (not to be confused with acting on their own authority).”
Delegation of authority—“management by objectives”—is the newer style of command since World War II. The lower-level commanders are given goals but are allowed to choose how to achieve them. This was only enabled by improved communication and control measures.
In Germany that would be Auftragstaktik which is older then WWII (the German Wikipedia gives 1866).
The idea behind it seem to date to the wars against Napoleon but could at first only be a applied to the higher leaders. To apply this idea to leaders lower in the hierarchy needed technological advances:
“It was not until the innovations in weapons technology from the late 1850s onwards, above all the introduction of the breechloading rifle and the resulting battlefield revolution (dissolution of the closed form in favor of a dispersed fighting style, introduction of the rifle squad instead of the company or even battalion column as the main fighting form of the infantry), that the lower troop leaders were forced, as it were, to take on more responsibility and initiative (not to be confused with acting on their own authority).”
Auftragstaktik in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft (translation by Deepl)