3.2 Managers, Leadership and Decision Making Flashcards
What is management?
(List some things that managers do)
Getting things done by organising, delegating and motivating staff to acheive business objectives.
This includes:
- setting objectives
- analysing
- leading
- making decisions
- reviewing.
What are the different types of leadership styles?
Business Theory: Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum
- Autocratic
- Democratic
- Laissez-Faire
- Paternalistic
What is the Tannenbaum Schmidt continuum?
A model that highlights the range of different management styles that are being used, ranging from a tell approach to a delegating approach.
Describe an Autocratic leader.
- Leader makes decisions without reference to anyone.
- High degree of dependancy on the leader.
- Can create de-motivation and alienation of staff.
- Decisions are made quickly.
Describe a Democratic leader.
- Encourages decision making from different perspectives.
- Leaders consult before decisions are made.
- May help motivation.
- Workers feel ownership of their ideas.
- Improves sharing of ideas.
- Can delay decsion making.
Describe Laissez-faire leadership.
- Responsibilities are shared by all.
- Useful in organisations that rely on creative ideas.
- Motivational - people have control of working life.
- Desicion making is time consuming and may lack direction.
- Relies on good teamwork and interpersonal relationships.
Describe Paternalistic leadership.
- Employees are consulted but leader makes all decisions.
- Leader acts as a father figure.
- Close supervision of staff.
- Type of authoritarian management but manager looks after needs of subordinates.
- Workers recognise that manager is trying to support their needs.
What factors influence leadership styles?
- Task
- Corporate culture
- Type of labour force
- Group size
- Leaders personality
- Time available to complete task.
- Companies structure
What is the Blake Mouton Grid?
A model that highlights the different management styles according to the leaders focus on the task and the people within the business.
Describe a Country Club leader.
Has the most concern for people, if people are happy they will work hard.
Describe an Impoverished leader.
Least concern for people and production.
Describe the ‘Middle of the road’ leader.
Balanced concern for people and production.
Describe a Team leader.
Stresses the importance of high production and employee satisfaction.
Describe a produce or perish leader.
Employees are just another asset to the business and their needs are always secondary to efficiency and productivity.
What is scientific decision making? How is the data represented?
- A systematic approach of collecting data in times of uncertainty and where the outcome will have a major impact on the medeim to long-term future of the organastion.
- Represented by Decsion Trees.
E.g.
What are the advantages of scientific decision making?
- Accurate
- Evidence based
- Methodical
- Lots of research
- Financial stability
- Helps to review desicions
- Easier to obtian finance
How do you calculate the Expected value from a decsion tree?
The financial value of an outcome calculated by multiplying the estimated financial effect by its probability.
How do you calculate the Net gain from a decsion tree?
Net gain is calculated by adding together the expected value of each outcome and deducting the costs associated with the decision
What is Intuative decision making?
Using a combination of experience and ‘feel for the future’ to make decisions.
Commonly reffered to as a ‘Hunch’.
What are the advantages of Intuative decision making?
- Decisions made quickly
- Logical
- Qualitative
- Enthusiastic
- Less cost
- More understanding
Give some examples of internal and external stakeholders.
Internal stakeholders:
- Employees
- Managers
- Shareholders
External stakeholders:
- Suppliers
- Customers
- Local community
- Government
What is a stakeholder?
Groups or individuals who have an interest in the business. Different stakeholders can have a different impact on the organisation, however not all have the same wants and needs.
What is stakeholder mapping?
Stakeholder maps are decision making tools to assess the interest and power of stakeholders in order to make decisions on how to manage them.
However, they do not provide businesses with clear solutions on how to manage stakeholders.
What are the internal influences on Stakeholder relationships?
- Management and leadership styles
- Objectives to allign with interests. E.g. growth/profit
- Size and ownership
