2.3 Flashcards
Manager
An individual who is responsible for setting objectives, organising resources and motivating staff so that the organisations’ aims are met.
Henri Fayol Role of Management
- Setting objectives and planning
- Organising resources
- Directing and motivating staff
- Coordinating activities
- Controlling and measuring performance against targets
Henri Mintzberg Role of Management
Adding a “practical” approach.
Informational Roles
Interpersonal Roles
Decisional Roles
Informational Roles (Henri Mintzberg)
Connected to the handling of information.
- Monitor: information received from internal and external sources (checking weekly sales)
- Disseminator: interpreting and transmitting information to internal stakeholders (writing sales reports for management meetings)
- Spokesperson: transmitting information to external stakeholders (speaking to customers)
Interpersonal Roles (Henri Mintzberg)
Involves dealing with people.
- Figurehead: performing social and legal duties (presnting an award)
- Leader: all duties involving managing staff (appraisals)
- Liaison: maintaining a network of contacts who provide information, advice and help
Decisional Roles (Henri Mintzberg)
Making different types of decisions.
- Entrepreneur: finding opportunities and improving business performance
- Disturbance Handler: taking corrective action in order to resolve an issue
- Resource Allocator
- Negotiator: making agreements with external stakeholders
Leadership
Ability to influence the thoughts and behaviour of others to achieve organisational goals. Key element to a manager’s job.
Leadership theory - Trait Theory
Assumes people are born leaders. Suggests people can’t be trained to become leaders.
Qualities of an effective leader
- Honesty and integrity
- Risk taking
- Administration and organisation
- Fairness
- Caring
- Communication
- Charisma
- Confidence
- Clear vission and innovation
Leadership Styles
Autocratic
Demoratic
Laissez-faire
Paternalistic
Situational
Autocratic Leadership
Keeps all decision making at the center of the organisation. Orders are given and obeyed without question.
Democratic Leadership
Allows consultation of all staff and delegation of authority, often associated with active participation from staff.
Laissez-faire Leadership
Leader’s role is peripheral and staff manages their own areas of the business. Reverse of autocratic style.
Paternalistic Leadership
Fatherly style typically used by dominant males where their power is used to control and protect subordinate employees who are expected to be loyal and obedient.
Situational Leadership
Effective leadership varies with the task in hand, situational leaders adapt their leadership style to each situation.
Autocratic Style Benefits
- Decision making is quick
- Tasks and relationships are cleary defined
Autocratic Style Costs
- Employee expertise isn’t used
- Creativity and initiative is suppressed
- Can make employees feel like they are being controlled
- Turnover may be high
Situations where Autocratic style is appropiate
- Where work is repetitive
- In situations of urgency
- When employees don’t respond to any other leadership style
Democratic Style Benefits
- Better quality decisions can be reached
- Uses experience and knowledge of all the workforce
- Job satisfaction and motivation is enhanced
- Turnover may be reduced
Democratic Style Costs
- Productivity my be reduced due to the amount of discussion taking place
- Employees may not want the responsability
- Relies heavily on good communication
Situations where Democratic style is appropiate
- Where time can be taken to explore a variety of alterntives
- Where flexibility is required
Laissez-faire Advantages
- High degree of skill and motivation
- Sense of team exists
- Routine is familiar to workers
Laissez-faire Disadvantages
- Low degree of knowledge in members
- Groups expect to be told what to do
Laissez-faire style is appropiate when:
- When leading a team of highly motivated and skilled people
Paternalistic Style Benefits
- Workers feel valued
- Sense of familiarity
Paternalistic Style Costs
- Increased dependency of employees on the leader
- Employee disatisfaction if bad decisions are made
Situations in which is appropiate to use Paternalistic style
- New, inexperienced employees
- Family run business
- In traditional hierarchial structure where creativity is not encouraged
