Managers, Leadership and decision making - 2.1

Question 1

What is the role of a manager?

Answer 1

• Planning (What objectives should be set- financial or ethical)
• Directing (management can influence and oversee behaviour of staff in achieving goals.)
• Organising (management needs to assemble resources)
  -Controlling (setting standards using objectives and reviewing and reporting performance.)

Question 2

What do managers do in interpersonal management? (Managing through other people)

Answer 2

-Figureheads (Represent colleagues and are expected to have inspiration)
-Leaders (Create and maintain effective work environments)
-Liaison (Communicate with internal and external contacts to gather info)

Question 3

What do managers do in Informational categories? (Processing information)

Answer 3

-Monitor (Look for changes in environment and look after their teams)
-Disseminator (Passes on valuable information to others in organisation)
-Spokesperson (Represent and speak for organisation)

Question 4

What do managers do in decisional categories? (Using information to make decisions)

Answer 4

-Entrepreneur (Planning and initiating change)
-Disturbance handler (Dealing with the unexpected and crises)
-Negotiator (Managers engage in important negotiations within and outside the business)

Question 5

Tannebaum Schmidt Continuum model

Answer 5

• Tells
• Sells
• Suggests
• Consults
• Joins
• Delegates
• Abdicates

Question 6

How does the Tannebaum and Schmidt continuum model work?

Answer 6

On the left hand side, use of authority by the manager is at its most and as you move down the scale, freedom for subordinates increases.

Question 7

What is an autocratic leadership style?

Answer 7

Decision making is best kept at top of organisation. Minimum delegation and there is a close supervision of employees. Senior management can become overworked.

Question 8

What is a democratic leadership style?

Answer 8

Operating a business according to decisions agreed by the majority. Needs excellent communication skills. High levels of motivation. Depends on size of business.

Question 9

What is a Laissez-faire leadership style?

Answer 9

Employees are empowered to make decisions. Organisation can lack a sense of direction. Useful if workforce understands and agrees with organisations objectives.

Question 10

Effectiveness on different styles of leadership and management

Answer 10

There is multiple different styles of effectiveness and they all can effect the business in different ways. To be effective, the business has to make sure they have sufficient resources, good training for their employees and have to carefully recruit employees to make sure they are the correct person for the job

Question 11

What can influence management styles?

Answer 11

-Type of labour force (Highly trained and skilled employees are more suitable for democratic leadership
-Nature of task and timescale (Urgent tasks will require a focused autocratic approach)

Question 12

What is the effectiveness of leadership and management styles?

Answer 12

Can only be effective if for example, a subordinate-centred leadership style is provided with efficient resources such as training. Skills and abilities of subordinates can create effective management.

Question 13

Decision making : Risks, rewards and uncertainty

Answer 13

Decisions will have some sort of risk, to make a decision there may be uncertainty because there is a lack of knowledge and outcomes are unpredictable. Although, the decision may have a reward in the end.

Question 14

What is a decision tree?

Answer 14

A model of a decision to be made that includes the probabilities and impacts of future events

Question 15

What are the influences on decision making?

Answer 15

• Mission and objectives
• Ethics
• Risk involved
• External environment
• Resource constraints

Question 16

Mission and objectives

Answer 16

Whether a decision is ‘right’ will depend on what it does to help a business. For example, a hotel chain may have to invest in training their staff to improve its ratings for customer service

Question 17

Ethics

Answer 17

The principles of right and wrong that guide an individual in making decisions

Question 18

Risk involved

Answer 18

If there is a high-risk decision, steps will need to be taken to ensure they reduce the impact of the risk by gathering data

Question 19

External environment

Answer 19

(competition, interest rates, consumer’s income), if there is a change in the external environment, this may cause a business to cancel or change their decisions,

Question 20

Resource constraints

Answer 20

Have to make decisions based on the available resources (time, labour, materials)

Question 21

What is a stakeholder?

Answer 21

Party which has an interest in the company and can either affect or be affected by the business.

Question 22

Who are stakeholders?

Answer 22

• Investors
• Employees
• Customers
• Suppliers

Question 23

What is the role of stakeholders?

Answer 23

• Set goals
• Guide choices
• Provide necessary resources
• Ensure responsible practices
• Support finance

Question 24

What is stakeholder mapping?

Answer 24

A 4 square grid with the titles
- Keep satisfied
- Manage closely
- Keep informed
- Monitor
Along the bottom is level of interest with high to low and along the side is level of influence with high to low. Stakeholders are then placed along this grid to see who they need to keep informed, satisfied etc.