2 - Managers, leadership and decision making 🥇 Flashcards
Define leadership
deciding on a direction for a company in relation to its objectives and inspiring staff to achieve those objectives
Define management
getting things done by organising other people to do it
What are the 4 types of leadership?
Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez-faire, Paternalistic
What are the pros of autocratic leadership?
- valuable in businesses where decisions must be made quickly
What are the cons of autocratic leadership?
- high dependency on leader
- can create de-motivation and alienation in staff
What is autocratic leadership?
makes decisions without referance to anyone else
What are the pros of democratic leadership?
- motivating
- staff feel ownership of ideas
- improves sharing of ideas = innovation
- consultative
What are the cons of democratic leadership?
- delays decision making
What is democratic leadership?
different perspectives and discussions with leaders and staff
What are the pros of laissez-faire leadership?
- useful in creative/innovative businesses
- motivational as staff have control
- relies on good teamwork
What are the cons of laissez-faire leadership?
- makes co-ordination and decision making time consuming
- lacking in direction and goals
What is laissez-faire leadership?
- “let it be” = responsibilties are shared
What are the pros of paternalistic leadership?
- leader = father figure
- staff recognise manager is trying to support them
- close supervision but attempts are made to gain respect of staff
What are the cons of paternalistic leadership?
- staff may trust their “father figure” too much so won’t voice queries
What is paternalistic leadership?
- employees are consulted but leader makes all decisions
- type of authoritarian management but the manager attempts to look after the needs of subordinates
What factors affect leadership styles?
- the task / particular situation
- company structure
- time available to complete task
- group / leader’s personality
- group size
- type of labour - skilled / unskilled
- culture of the organisation
Who is senior management?
eg. Board of Directors
- sets corporate objectives
- responsible for shareholders
- led by CEO
Who is middle management?
- accountable to senior
- run business functions and departments
Who is junior management?
- supervisory role
- accountable to middle
- monitor and control day-to-day tasks
- manage team of staff
What is the Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum of Leadership?
illustrates a range of potential leadership and management styles
What does the Continuum of Leadership recognise?
that a chosen leadership style depends on a variety of factors, including leader’s personality, qualities of staff, situational factors
What is the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid?
identifies different leadership styles based on a grid:
y-axis = concern for people
x-axis = concern for completing task
What should all leaders strive for in the Blake Mouton Grid?
team management
What are the 5 different managements in the Blake Mouton Grid?
Country club / team / impoverished / authority-obedience / middle of the road
Pros and cons of scientific decision making
Pros = supported by quantifiable data / logical
Cons = time-consuming / expensive data
What are the pros and cons to intuitive decision making?
Pros = allows for quick decision making / encourages innovation and creativity
Cons = difficult to justify / reliant on expertise and experience
Define opportunity costs
the cost of a decision is measured by the benefits forgone of the next best alternative
What are the steps to scientific decision making?
1 . set objectives
2. gather data
3. analyse data
4. make decision
5. implement decision
6. review decision
Define a decision tree
maps out the different options available, the possible outcomes and the points where decisions need to be made - calculations can be made from the tree
Advantages of decision trees
- set out the problem clearly
- encourages logical thought
- quantitative approach
- take risk into account
- useful when similar scenarios have already occurred
- tactical decisions
Disadvantages of decision trees
- ignore constant changing nature of business
- difficult to gather data / probabilities
- less useful for new ideas
- management bias to influence the estimates of probability and financial returns to manipulate data
- doesn’t include expertise
- ignore qualitative issues
Blake Mouton
What is country club management?
High concern for people
Low concern for task
Blake Mouton
What is Team Management?
High concern for people
High concern for task
Blake Mouton
What is authority-obedience management?
High concern for task
Low concern for people
Blake Mouton
What is impoverished management?
Low concern for people
Low concern for task
Blake Mouton
What is middle of the road management?
This style is used when the team is left by themselves while you work on higher priorities
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is tells?
Manager makes decision and tells team
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is sells?
Manager makes decisions and sells it to the team
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is suggests?
Manager presents suggestions but invites questions from the team
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is consults?
Manager makes decision, consulting team before making final
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is joins?
Manager presents problem, gets team ideas, then makes decision
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is delegates?
Manager defines limits then asks team for decisions
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
What is abdicates?
Manager allows full freedom to explore options and make decisions
Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
In what order does leadership styles sit in this?
Autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, laissez-faire
Stakeholder Mapping
When do you keep stakeholders satisfied?
When they have high power but low interest
Stakeholder Mapping
When do you manage stakeholders closely?
High level of interest and high level of power
Stakeholder Mapping
When do you monitor stakeholders?
low power and low level of interest
When do you keep stakeholders informed?
Low power but high level of interest
List 5 roles of managers
- setting objectives
- analysing
- leading
- making decisions
- reviewing
What are the 5 main influences on decision making?
- mission
- objectives
- ethics
- external environment (competition/economy)
- resource constraints
Stakeholders
What may shareholders/owner want?
- ROI
- success
- growth
Stakeholders
What may managers / employees want?
- rewards & job satisfaction
- job security / promotions
- good working conditions
Stakeholders
What may customers want?
- value for money
- product quality
- customer servhce
Stakeholders
What may suppliers want?
- continued trade
- financial stability
Stakeholders
What may banks/financial providers want?
- growth in profits
- good cash flows
Stakeholders
What may the govt want?
- payment of taxes
- business growth = employment
- compliance with legislation
Stakeholders
What may society want?
- success
- compliance with local laws (noise/pollution)
Stakeholders - Conflict
Who will support and who will oppose the business decision to cut jobs to reduce costs?
Support - shareholders and bank
Oppose - employees and local community
Stakeholders - Conflict
Who will support and who will oppose the business decision to introduce new machinery?
Support - customers and shareholders
Oppose - employees (lose their jobs)
Stakeholders - Conflict
Who will support and who will oppose the business decision to add extra shifts to increase factory capacity?
Support - managers/customers/suppliers
Oppose - local community
