3.2 Managers, Leadership And Decision Making

Question 1

What is the difference between management and leadership?

Answer 1

Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things

Question 2

What exactly is leadership?

Answer 2

Deciding on a direction for a company in relation to its objectives and inspiring staff to achieve those objectives

Question 3

What is management?

Answer 3

Getting things done by organising other people to do it

Question 4

What is an autocratic leadership style?

Answer 4

• leader makes decisions without reference to anyone else
• high degree of dependency on the leader
• can de-motivate staff
• can be valuable where decisions need to be made quickly

Question 5

What is a democratic leadership style?

Answer 5

• encourages decision making from different perspectives
• consultative, asks before decisions are made
• it could help motivation among staff
• workers feel ownership of their ideas
• improves sharing of ideas
• can delay decision making

Question 6

What is a paternalistic leadership style?

Answer 6

• employees are consulted but the leader makes decisions
• leader acts as a father figure
• close supervision but gains their staffs respect
• they are a type of authoritarian management. But the management looks at staff needs
• the staff recognises this which improves team moral

Question 7

What is the Laissez-fairs leadership style?

Answer 7

• means ‘let it be’ is the shared responsibility
• can be useful in business where creative ideas are important
• can be motivational as people have control over their own working lives
• can make coordination/decision making harder
• relies on good team work

Question 8

What is the Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum?

Answer 8

This is a model that highlights the range of different management styles that may be adopted ranging from a ‘tell’ approach to one that involves delegation

Question 9

What are the 4 main leadership styles in the Tannenbaum Schmidt continuum?

Answer 9

Tell
Sell
Consult
Joins

Question 10

What does the Tannenbaum Schmidt continuum show?

Answer 10

The model highlights that there are a range of styles rather than categorising management and leadership simply in terms of either authoritarian and democratic

Question 11

When can you use the Tannenbaum Schmidt continuum?

What needs to be considered?

Answer 11

When you’re discussing the influence of different management and leadership styles

• advantages / disadvantages
• factors which determine the style chosen
• when a style might be appropriate in different situations

Question 12

What is a Blake Mouton grid?

Answer 12

It highlights how interested a manager / leader is in the people or the task

Question 13

How do decision trees work?

Answer 13

1. Draw a square to represent the decision
2. Draw out lines from square and write available options. Add a do nothing line
3. Consider the result at end of each line (circle)
4. Draw lines to the right representing possible
   outcomes
5. At the end of the line write the financial result of each outcome
6. Calculate the expected values for each outcome by MULTIPLYING the value of the OUTCOME by the PROBABILITY
7. Once net expected value has been calculated, add to diagram and cross out any rejected decisions

Question 14

What is a stakeholder?

Answer 14

This is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the business

Question 15

Give 4 examples of internal stakeholders

Answer 15

• Employees
• Managers
• Board of directors
• Investors

Question 16

Give three examples of external stakeholders

Answer 16

• Suppliers
• Creditors
• Public groups

Question 17

What is opportunity cost?

Answer 17

The benefit of the alternative option which is sacrificed when making the decision

Question 18

Define interest rate

Answer 18

The return for saving or the cost of borrowing

Question 19

What are the two types of decision a business will make?

Answer 19

• Scientific ( decision trees )

- Intuition

Question 20

What counts as a scientific decision?

Answer 20

• supported by quantifiable evidence
• encourages logical thought process
• this may require expensive data/equipment
• time consuming

Question 21

What counts as an intuitive decision?

Answer 21

• allows for quick decision making
• encourages innovation and creativity
• difficult to justify
• reliant on experience and expertise

Question 22

Define stakeholder mapping

Answer 22

This allows a business to be able to see the interest people will have in something as well as the power they have to control it

Question 23

What is the ‘keep satisfied’ section of stakeholder mapping?

Answer 23

• potentially influential group with low interest but have high power

Question 24

What is the ‘manage closely’ area of the stakeholder mapping?

Answer 24

• most important group of stakeholders, are the most interested and have the most power

Question 25

What does the ‘monitor’ area of stakeholder mapping mean?

Answer 25

Neither powerful or have high interest in the project, include the minimum amount of effort

Question 26

What is the ‘keep informed’ area of the stakeholder mapping?

Answer 26

• low power but high interest

- secondary stakeholders, keeping them up to date with developments, can develop a good relations