HR Strategies Flashcards
LEADERSHIP STYLE
WHAT: Leadership style refers to ways that managers communicate with their employees to inspire and motivate them to work together to achieve an organisation’s goals.
Describe: - Autocratic/Authoritarian
Participative/democratic - Delegative - Laissez-Faire
Implications
Leadership styles should be adapted to the particular demand of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved and the particular challenges facing the organisation.
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Autocratic leadership
WHAT: Autocratic leadership style is being used when a leader dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved, and directs and controls all activities without any meaningful participation by the subordinates. This leader has full control of the team, leaving low autonomy within the group.
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Autocratic Implications
ADV: → Control - dangerous work environments or situations requiring complicated tasks with no room for error, such as safety inspections. → Provides structure and dependence for inexperienced or unmotivated workers → Quick decisions
DIS: → Increased work burden as leader takes full responsibility for team decisions → high stress and health problems → Dampen morale, reduce a team’s creativity and productivity
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Democratic
WHAT: Democratic or participative leadership style encourages collaboration by including employee/s within the decision-making process. It focuses on leading, motivating, and communicating.
DESCRIBE: Input into decisions by staff - Responsibilities shared - Behaviouralist approach to HR - Suits teams and flatter structures
WHEN: → When managers recognise that employees may have different yet effective ideas → When the knowledge and skill base of staff are valued as part of the culture within the organisation → When managers are seeking to motivate staff and encourage a form of ownership over their work → To encourage employees to become empowers
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Delegative
WHAT: Delegative leadership style allows the employees to make decisions. However, not all decisions then become the responsibility of employees. The process of effective delegate leadership involves a clear understanding between leaders and employees about who can make what decisions.
Describe:
WHEN → When employees have the relevant knowledge and skills to make decisions → When managers trust the ability of employees to make the right decisions → When managers are seeking to motivate staff and encourage a form of ownership over their work.
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Laissez-Faire
WHAT: Laissez-faire leadership style is a non-authoritarian leadership style that tries to give the least possible guidance to subordinates, and try to achieve control through less obvious means. They believe that people excel when they are left alone to respond to their responsibilities and obligations in their own ways.
DESCRIBE: → Minimal intervention by managers → Responsibilities equally shared → High level of teamwork, interpersonal → Suits very experienced and skilled self-starters → Effective if the leader monitors what’s being achieved and communicates this back to the team regularly → Unfortunately, this type of leadership can also occur when managers don’t apply sufficient control.
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Laissez-Faire TYPES - Directive, visionary, Affiliative
Directive → Emphasis on immediate compliance from employees. → Other labels: autocratic, dictatorial, coercive → Ideal situations: in a crisis, to kick start a turnaround or with problem employees.
Visionary→ Emphasis on long-term vision and leadership → Other labels: authoritative → Ideal situations: when changes require a new vision, or when a clear direction is needed.
Affiliative → Emphasis on the creation of harmony/belonging within the organisation → Other labels: harmoniser → Ideal situations: to build buy-in or consensus or to get input from valuable employees
LEADERSHIP STYLE: Laissez-Faire TYPES
Bureaucratic → Leaders work ‘by the book’ → Follow rules rigorously, and ensure that their staff follows procedures precisely
→ Ideal situations: addressing serious safety risks or where large sums of money are involved
Pacesetting → Leader expects and models excellence and self direction → Emphasis on accomplishment of tasks to high standards → Ideal situations: to get quick results from a highly standard and competent team
Coaching → Emphasis on the professional growth of employees → Other labels: developmental → Ideal situations: to help an employee improve performance or to develop long-term strengths. Also used for succession planning.
JOB DESIGN
Define: Job design is the process of designing the content of a job and how it will interact with other jobs and employees, so as to better inform, motivate and retain employees.
Job design is the kind, variety, and number of tasks that a worker is expected to carry out in the course of performing their job.
JOB DESIGN: Describe - General tasks
WHAT: Refers to a greater variety of tasks to be performed by workers, where they are required to apply a greater range of skills in their job
The main objective of the provision of a wider variety of tasks is to improve worker satisfaction and productivity
E.g. communication and commitment
JOB DESIGN: Describe - Specific Tasks
WHAT: Identifies one best way of doing a job and that worker skills should be matched to the job requirements
→ Employees may be given more of a similar task to perform however are expected to complete the task in greater quantity and with greater responsibility
→ Revolves around tightly defined roles to ensure that employees know exactly what their roles are and what they are expected to do
→ Can lead to greater motivation, specialisation and therefore productivity, however may also lead to greater boredom in an employee’s job.
JOB DESIGN: Methods of job design and Explain
Methods of job design → Job rotation - employees switch, for a period of time, from one job to another → Job enrichment - more control and independence → Job enlargement - more tasks to do within same job
Explain/Analyse (why/how) → Improving employee productivity (e.g. understanding their role) → A correctly defined job contract will attract the appropriate applicants → Decreased staff turnover through helping employees understanding their job roles from the outset → Use all of the abilities of employee
JOB DESIGN: Implications
ADV:1. Increase in job satisfaction for individuals (due to job enrichment) 2. Increase in productivity for business operations 3. Cut costs, helping competitiveness of business
DIS: 1. Poor business performance (productivity) 2. Additional costs 3. Employee stress, anxiety, absenteeism and low retention rates
RECRUITMENT
WHAT: Recruitment is the process of locating and attracting the right quantity and quality of staff to apply for employment vacancies or anticipated vacancies at the right cost.
Recruitment matches business’s HR needs with the appropriate staff.
Recruitment begins After Job design.
DESCRIBE:
Stages include: → Attract appropriate candidates → Check background, qualifications → Verify experience.→ Select employee from short list
RECRUITMENT: Explain
Poor recruitment/selection process leads to issues of:
→ Increased costs → Lower productivity → Training costs → Job dissatisfaction, lower performance, industrial unrest/labour turnover → Increase in absenteeism → Increase in accident or defect rates → Claims of discrimination
