3.2 Managers, Leaders and Decision Making Flashcards
What is the difference between management and leadership?
Managers focus on day-to-day running of the business, planning and organisation.
Leaders focus on strategic thinking, visions and risk taking.
What are the 4 types of managment style? Why would they be adopted? Benefit and negative of each.
Authoritarian - Power, control and decision making are done at the top of the hierarchy and filtered top down.
Used when leaders have little confidence in the ability of their staff.
Benefits = Quick decision making
Negatives = Can be frustrating and demotivating for subordinates as they have no input in decisions.
Paternalistic - Employees are seen as family members and are involved in the decision making process. Decisions are ‘sold’ to workers.
Used in industries such as healthcare where it is benefical for workers to feel supported and nutured.
Benefits = Workers feel included and secure, good for times of crisis.
Negatives = Can make passing on difficult decisions a challenge if workers do not agree.
Democratic - Involves two-way communication and alot of delegation, workers are involved in the decicions making process and the majority decide the actions that are taken forward.
Used in business where workers are highly skilled and their input is beneficial
Benefits = Workers are valued and their skilled input can benefit the company
Negatives = The may be confusion as to where management power lies.
Laissez-faire - A group of non-management personal make decisions and the leader adopts a hands off approach. Leaders has little to no input in decision makings.
Used in business where workers are highly skilled and educated, more so than the leader.
Benefits = Workers take job seriously and can be more creative and innovative.
Negatives = Some workers prefer a structured style of management and do not work well with such freedoms.
In an exam question about leadership, what models do we include?
Blake and Moulton grid
Tannebaum-Shmidt Leadership Continuum
What is the Tannenbaum-Schmidt leadership continuum used for?
It looks at the relationship between the level of authority adopted by a leader and the resulting level of freedom given to the workers.
What are the 7 levels of the Tannenbaum-Schmidt continuum?
Tells - Manager makes decision an tells team
Sells - Manager makes decision and sells it to the team
Suggests - Manager makes suggestions and invites questions from team
Consults - Manager makes decision but conuslts team before finalising.
Joins - Manager presents problem, gets team ideas, then makes decision
Delegates - Manager defines limits, then asks team for decision
Abdicates - Managers allows full freedom for team to make decision
What would make a manager adopt a lower level of leadership style from the Tannenbaum-Schmidt continuum?
A less skilled and experienced team. As their skills grow, move up the continuum.
What is the Blake Moulton grid?
A model that divides manager styles into 4 different categories depening on their level of concern for production and their level of concern for people (workers).
Along the Y-axis is concern for people, along the X-axis is concern for production. Each goes from low to high, low starting at 0,0.
What are the 5 different categories of the Blake Moulton grid?
Explain a benefit and negative of each where possible.
Country club management = high concern for people, low for production.
Impoverished management = low concern for people and production
Team management = high concern for people and production
Produce-or-perish management = low concern for people, high concern for production
Middle of the road = Medium concern for both people and production
What are the main 3 types of decisions that a business can make?
Think STO
Strategic - Long term and affect business direction. Made by senior management.
Tactical - Medium term and carried out by middle management
Operational - Day to day decisions, short term, little risk.
What are the three factors a manager may draw on to make decisions?
Intuition, Past Experience and Scientific Data
What is scientific decision making? What is the process?
Scientific decision making involves using facts and data in a systematic way in order to arrive at an evidence based decision.
Set objectives > Gather Data > Analyse Data > Select > Implement > Review
What is intuitive decision making?
Intuitive decision making is making decisions based on experience and intuition, often with no data or systematic approach.
What is a decision tree?
A decision tree is a form of diagramtic analysis used to help business make decisions when there is multiple options to choose from.
What does a square indicate on a decision tree?
That a decision needs to be made.
What does a circle indicate on a decision tree?
That there are different possible outcomes.
How do you calculate the expected monetary value of a decision using a decision tree?
Multiply the probability of the outcome occuring by the revenue that the outcome would generate. We then sum the two figures together for the decision and that gives us the EMV.
How do you calculate the net gain of a decision using data on a decision tree?
Expected monetary value of the decision - the initial cost
If there is a question about new product VS existing product promotion in the exam, what should you remember to mention?
That according to Ansoff, product development is much riskier than new promotion.
What are 2 benefits and 2 drawbacks of a decision tree?
Benefits:
Clearly lay out the problem so all options can be considered.
Provide a scientific framework to quantify value of decision outcomes.
Drawbacks:
Probabilities are only an estimte and can be inacurate.
Can oversimplify a decision and focus too much on the
financial outcome.
What are some key influences on decision making?
Business objectives
Organisational Structure
Attitude to risk
Availabilty and reliability of data
The external enviroment
What is a stakeholder?
An individual or group of people who has an interest in or is affected by a business and what they do.
What are the 7 main stakeholder groups?
Shareholders, directors/managers, employees/workers, customers, suppliers, governments and local communities.
What model can we use to evaluate the importance of each stakeholder group?
Mendelows Stakeholder Mapping
Describe/draw what Mendelows Stakeholder Map looks like
see flashcard
Level of interest = LI Power = P
Low LI, Low P > Minimal effort
Low LI, High P > Keep Satisfied
High LI, Low P > Keep Informed
High LI, Low P > Key Players
In a stakeholder question in an exam, what should you include?
Mendelows stakeholder mapping
Stakeholder needs and conflicts between these needs
How best to manage relationships with stakeholders
Stakeholder mapping is just a model, not a solution to any probelms
