Managers delegate as much responsibility and activity as possible to those below them, stepping in only when absolutely necessary. A principle in management in which management decisions that cannot be made at one level is passed up to the next level for a decision (i.e. exception decisions are passed up the management tree). The principle used in budgetary control in which items of income or expenditure that show no variance or small variances require no action, whereas exceptional items showing adverse variances to an unacceptable level require action to be taken.