Chapter 6: Management Skills Leading/Motivating

Question 1

What is leadership?

Answer 1

Leadership is the ability to influence people positively so they follow you and they get behind your ideas. Leadership develops a bond between employers and employees.

Question 2

Explain Autocratic Leadership.

Answer 2

Manager makes all the decisions
Never asks for employees opinions
Gives orders which he expects to be obeyed
Uses fear and threats
E.g. Labourer on a building site told what to do.

Question 3

Evaluate Autocratic leadership.

Answer 3

Workers resent being treated badly, may resign and business loses good workers.
Workers will be unhappy and uncooperative
May be appropriate style in an emergency, deadlines or if the workers lack some necessary skills. E.g. Labourer on a building site.

Question 4

Explain democratic leadership.

Answer 4

Manager involves employees when making decisions.
Discuss issues and take on board their opinions.
Manager delegates work because he trusts them.
Gets employee to cooperate by reasoning and explaining things to them.
E.g. Microsoft lets employees come up with new products.

Question 5

Evaluate democratic leadership

Answer 5

Effective because employees like to be involved, feel important and listened to.
Happier employees do better work
Encourages Intrapreneurship.
Appropriate when employees are knowledgeable and confident.
E.g. Microsoft, employees came up with Xbox

Question 6

Explain Laissez Faire Leadership.

Answer 6

Manager does not interfere with how employees do their work.
Gives employees work and time to do it.
How they do the work is up to them.
Delegates to and trusts employees.
Reasons and explains decisions.
E.g. Employees have a skill the manager does not understand.

Question 7

Evaluate Laissez Faire Leadership.

Answer 7

Appropriate with highly skilled, motivated and trustworthy employees. Appropriate for businesses that rely on creativity and innovation.
E.g. Google

Some employees can’t work without supervision.

Question 8

Explain delegation with an example.

Answer 8

When a manager assigns authority to an employee to carry out a task or project for them. Employees are given the responsibility for the job but ultimate responsibility lies with the manager. E.g. HR Manager gives HR assistant CV’s to go through and choose five people to interview.

Question 9

Explain the four advantages of delegation.

Answer 9

1. Manager has more time to spend on mort important tasks.
2. Work is completed faster saving time and money.
3. On the job training for employees to become managers.
4. Motivates employees because the manager trusts them and this reduces staff turnover.

Question 10

Explain the four reasons effective leadership is important.

Answer 10

1. Improved efficiency - employees follow clear instructions and time and money are saved.
2. Improved Coordination - Staff believe in leader’s vision and pull together to achieve it.
3. Employee Retention - Helps keep employees and attract the best employees.
4. Change - Helps business cope with change as leaders lead by example.

Question 11

Define motivating.

Answer 11

Motivating involves managers energising employees and providing them with incentives so they cooperate and work harder. E.g. Microsoft, offer bonuses based on performance.

Question 12

Explain and evaluate a Theory X Manager.

Answer 12

Believe employees are lazy, have no ambition, dislike work and prefer to be told what to do.
Believe they only work for money.
Motivates in two ways: he threatens them and punishes them to keep them in line. He promises more money if they work harder.

Evaluation: Employees resent being treated this way by Theory-X manager, they may leave increasing staff turnover.

Employees aren’t motivated and they try to get as much money as they can for the least amount of work. They would also be uncooperative.

Question 13

Explain and evaluate a Theory Y manager.

Answer 13

Believes employees enjoy working, are ambitious and want more responsibility.
Motivates employees by offering promotions, giving praise and delegating.

Evaluation: Employees are happy, cooperative and hard-working.

Question 14

What is the belief of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer 14

Believes employees needs drive them to do something. Managers can offer things that satisfy these needs in order to motivate.

Question 15

Define Physiological needs.

Answer 15

Basic human needs like food and shelter. E.g. a job, higher pay so employee can afford basic needs.

Question 16

Define Safety needs.

Answer 16

Need to feel safe and secure such as financial security. E.g. offer employee a long term contract.

Question 17

Define social needs.

Answer 17

Need for friendship, belonging, acceptance and love. E.g. Put employees in teams, organise staff parties.

Question 18

Define esteem needs.

Answer 18

Need to feel good about yourself and feel valued. E.g. Manager can praise workers with awards/promotions.

Question 19

Define Self-Actualisation.

Answer 19

Need for personal growth and fulfilment and achieve all you are capable of. E.g. Offer more challenging work, part ownership

Question 20

Evaluate Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Answer 20

Provides good insight into what influences employees to work hard.
Tells managers what level employees are at and informs them of suitable incentives to motivate them.
Shows money is not the only thing that motivates.

Question 21

Explain four reasons motivation is important

Answer 21

1. Improved Productivity-motivated employees will make best quality products and provide best quality services.
2. Greater Intrepreneurship-Motivated staff are interested in the company and will provide suggestions to improve it.
3. Employee Recruitment and Retention-A business that motivates staff can attract the best staff.
4. Improved Industrial Relations-Motivated staff have good relationship with managers and will cooperate in times of difficulty.

Question 22

What are the drawbacks of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs?

Answer 22

Needs may not occur in strict order set out by Maslow

Not all employees are governed by the same set of needs.

Question 23

Explain factors that influence what leadership style is chosen.

Answer 23

Skills of employees-Unskilled workers need to be ordered as they don’t have the experience to do the work themselves.
Deadlines-If time is short than there is no time for discussion and decisions should be made quickly by managers.
Danger of work-If there is a risk of employees harming themselves they should follow orders reducing risks of a miscommunication leading to injury.