Chapter 6-Management Skills

Question 1

Leadership

Answer 1

Leadership is the ability to influence people positively so they follow you and get behind your ideas.

Question 2

types of leadership

Answer 2

Autocratic Leadership
Democratic Leadership
Laissez Faire Leadership

Question 3

Autocratic Leadership

Answer 3

The manager makes all the decisions without ever asking the employees for their opinion.
He gives orders and expects them to be obeyed
Uses fear and threats

Question 4

Autocratic Leadership Evaluation

Answer 4

Workers resent being treated badly, may resign. Business lose good workers.
May be appropriate style in an emergency, deadlines or if the workers lack some necessary skills. Eg Labourer on a building site.

Question 5

Democratic

Answer 5

Manager involves employees when making decisions. Discuss issues and take on their opinions.
Manager delegates work because he trusts them.
Gets employees to come along by reasoning and explaining things to them.

Question 6

Democratic Evaluation

Answer 6

More effective style because employees like to be involved, feel important and listened to. Happier employees do better work and lead to intrapreneurship.
Appropriate when employees are knowledgeable and confident.

Question 7

Laissez Faire

Answer 7

The manager does not interfere much with employees. He gives employees work and certain time to do the work. How they do the work is up to them.
Delegates to and trusts employees. Reasons and explains decisions.

Question 8

Laissez Faire Evaluation

Answer 8

Appropriate with highly skilled, motivated and trustworthy employees. Appropriate for business that rely on creativity and innovation.
Some employees can’t work without supervision

Question 9

Delegation

Answer 9

Delegation is when a manager assigns authority to an employee. Gives employees power to do some management work.
Ultimate responsibility lies with the manager.

Question 10

For Delegation to work you need…

Answer 10

Competent responsible trustworthy employees
A good control system to catch errors immediately
A manager with no ego and not afraid to delegate

Question 11

Advantages of Delegation

Answer 11

Manager has more time to devote to more important issues. Leads to more efficient use of managers time
Work gets done faster
‘On the job training’ for employees to become managers
Employees feel valued, important and happy. Reduces staff turnover

Question 12

Disadvantages of not Delegating

Answer 12

Stress for manager. Too much work.
Work takes longer
Employees are unhappy
Employees don’t get ‘trained up’ to management jobs

Question 13

Importance of effective leadership

Answer 13

Improved efficiency- employees follow clear instructions and time and money isn’t wasted doing the wrong thing
Improved Co-ordination- Staff believe in leaders vision and pull together to in the one direction
Employee Retention- Helps keep employees and attract the best employees
Change- helps the business deal with change by leading by example

Question 14

motivation + 2 main theories of motivation

Answer 14

Motivating involves managers energising employees and providing them with incentives so they co-operate and work harder
Some people are motivated by money, some people by job satisfaction, others by status.

There are 2 main theories of motivation 1) McGregor Theory X and Y 2) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Question 15

McGregor theory x and Y

• What is manager x and y
• how do the managers motivate employees
• how do the employees react to being treated this way

Answer 15

Theory X believes employees don’t like work, they are lazy with no ambition and prefer to be told what to do. They believe employees are motivated by money.

Theory X manager motivates in 2 ways. 1) He threatens them and punishes them to keep them in line. 2)He promises more money if they work harder.

Employees resent being treated this way by Theory X manager. They try get as much money as they can for the least amount of work. They would also be uncooperative.

Theory Y manager believes employees enjoy work, they want more responsibility and have ambition.
Theory Y manager praises employees and motivates by delegating, offering promotions and job titles.
Employees are a happy and cooperative

Question 16

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 16

Maslow believes people are motivated by their needs. If the manager knows what each employee needs he can use that as a reward to motivate staff.
Maslow thinks people have 5 different types of needs and arranged them into a hierarchy from basic to sophisticated.

Question 17

Importance of motivation

Answer 17

Improved productivity - employees motivated to work as hard as they can and will make the best quality products and provide the best service
Greater intrapreneurship - Highly motivated staff are invested in the company and will offer suggestions to help improve the business.
Employee recruitment and retention - A business that motivates staff can attract the best staff and keep the best employees
Improved industrial relations - Motivated staff have good relationship with managers and will cooperate in times of difficulty

Question 18

what is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 18

Physiological (Basic) needs
Safety
Social
Esteem
Self-Actualisation