2.1 Understanding management, leadership and decision making Flashcards
What are managers responsible for?
Ensuring tasks are completed in the day-to-day running of the business
Characteristics of managers in a small business
The leaders and managers are often the same people
What happens to leaders and managers once a business grows
Their roles become distinct from one another
What is the role of a leader in a growing business
Provide a focus on long-term vision and direction is often needed
What is the role of a manager in a growing business
Focus on ensuring tasks are completed, and deadlines are met, in such way to support the long-term vision and direction of the leader
Roles of a manager, as a decision maker
- Set objectives so that success criteria are available to later establish whether or not a task has been completed successfully
- Review and analyse data so that adaptations to current processes ca be made if required
- Select strategies and implement these to ensure processes are working efficiently and are supporting overall objectives
- Review the impact of their decision and use this review to inform the setting of future objectives
Factors which influence styles of management and leadership
- External environment ( appropriate for the business)
- Culture of business (best suited to the business’ needs)
e.g = in businesses with a very clear and well-defined culture, a change of leadership style may be difficult to introduce without resistance from the majority of employees - Skill level of workforce (may or may not want workforce to be in decision making process = value the knowledge of skilled and qualified staff)
Autocratic leadership
An approach by leaders or managers to keep control of decision making and ensure that employees are closely supervised
When is an autocratic approach most suited
If a business has a largely unskilled workforce so a manager or leader may wish to maintain decision making powers
Democratic leadership
An approach by leaders or managers to discuss and consult with employees, delegate decision making authority and empower employees through their involvement
When is a democratic approach most suitable for a business
In businesses which employ highly skilled and highly qualified employees, such as universities, Google & Microsoft, a manager or leader may decide that the contributions of such staff could be highly valuable to the business. Employees can contribute their expertise to the decision making process
What does Blake Mouton’s Theory grid classify
Styles according to whether a manager or leader places more emphasis on concern for people or concern for task completion
Blake Mouton’s Grid:
Low Concern about task, Low concern about people
Impoverished
Blake Mouton’s Grid:
Low Concern about task, High concern about people
Country club
Blake Mouton’s Grid:
High concern about task, low concern about people
Produce or perish
Blake Mouton’s Grid:
High concern about task, High concern about people
Team leader
Blake Mouton’s Grid:
In the middle
Stuck in the middle
What is country club leadership
Real focus on business’s employees, though this may be an enjoyable place to work, it can be detrimental to the business’s levels of production
Example of a business with country club leadership
Virgin- some employees have unlimited holidays - ensures employee satisfaction but comes at cost in terms of production and efficiency
What is team leader
Values both the importance of task completion and people. People are satisfied, feel valued and production is also a focus.
What is produce or perish leadership
So focused on production that the effect of this on employees is of no concern to the business in any way. e.g call centres- accused of focussing heavily on no. of outbound calls made p/h with no concern for staff well-being
What is impoverished leadership
Ineffective - often difficult to find examples for this type of leader as leaders in this category usually fail and do not become well known
What is middle of the road / stuck in the middle
some focus on task completion and people; neither gains the advantage of a full focus so there will be a poorer performance in each area
What did Tannenbaum and Schmidt make to show theories on management
The management continuum
What is to the left of the management continuum
- managers maintain full authority and decision making power
- managers communicate such decisions to employees who have to comply
- similar to an approach of autocratic leadership
What is to the right of the management continuum
- employees are given authority ad decision making power
- democratic leadership
Stages of the continuum (left - right)
- manager alone makes a decision and tells employees
- manager sells their decision to employees
- manager presents decision t employees and asks for questions
- manager presents decision to employees and is open to change
- manager presents an issue and asks for suggestions
- manager outlines limits of an issue and asks employees to make a decision
- manager allows employees to make their own decision, within limits
What leadership focus increases from left to right on the management continuum
employees (freedom)
What leadership focus decreases from right to left on the management continuum
manager (authority)
When is appropriate to change style of leadership
- state of emergency = managers/leaders may prefer to retain decision making and authority
- fast communication required = e.g BP’S Deepwater Horizon oil spill (killed 11 people, 2010)
- if employees’ views are valued, managers/leaders may adopt position on right so these views can be gathered
