Strategies Flashcards
Leadership style
APDL
Refers to ways that managers communicate with their employees to inspire and motivate them to work together to achieve an organisation’s goals.
- Leadership styles should be adapted to the particular demands of the situation
- The particular requirements of the people involved and the particular challenges facing the organisation
Leadership style
Autocratic/Authoritarian
Dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved, and directs and controls all activities without any meaningful participation by the subordinates. Full control of the team, leaving low autonomy.
- One person leading
- Focuses on planning, organising and controlling
- Leader does not consult when making decisions and takes all responsibility
- Classical scientific approach to HR - Suits hierarchy structure
Leadership style
Autocratic/Authoritian
Explain/Analyse
- Often creates a more stressful work environment - Dampen employee morale
- Employees face strict punishment/penalties for operating outside company guidelines
- Doesn’t take full advantage of employee’s skills, creativity and experience
- Increase employee absenteeism and turnover (Separation)
Leadership style
Autocratic/Authoritarian
- 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 - Only need approval from one Person
HOWEVER
- Increased work burden as leader takes full responsibility for team decisions
- Increased work burden can lead to high stress and health problems
- Dampen morale, reduce a team’s creativity and productivity if team is made up of highly skilled and motivated workers
Leadership style
Democratic/Participative
Encourages collaboration by including employee/s within the decision making process. Focuses on leading, motivating and communicating.
- Input into decisions by staff
- Responsibilities shared
- Behaviouralist approach to HR
- Suits teams and flatter structures
Leadership style
Democratic/Participative
Explain/Analyse - When is it used?
- 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 empowered
Leadership style
Delegative
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.
When is it used?
- When employees have the relevant knowledge and skills to make the 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
A Non-authoritarian leadership style
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 their own ways
DESCRIBE
- Minimal intervention by managers
- Responsibilities equally shared
- High level of teamwork, interpersonal
- Effective if the leader monitors what’s being achieved and communicates this back to the team regularly
This type of leadership can also occur when managers don’t apply sufficient control
Leadership
- 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
- Bureaucratic
- Pacesetting
- Coaching
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
Leadership Style
CASESTUDY
Apple’s leadership style has changed significantly over time
In 1997, the company was 90 days away from bankruptcy, thus, Steve Jobs effectively employed an autocratic / dictatorial leadership style in order to provide firm direction for Apple
As Apple received and especially under Tim Cook’s leadership from 2011, a more participative / democratic leadership style has been created, fostering creativity and increased productivity.
Ultimately, Apple’s effective participative leadership style strategy can be seen through 68% satisfied or very satisfied employee rating, and an 83% recommendation rating
Job design
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
General tasks
A greater variety of tasks to be performed by workers, where they are required to apply a greater range of skills in their job
Main objective of the provision of a wider variety of tasks is to improve worker satisfaction and productivity.
Job design
Specified tasks
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
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
Job design
Implications
- Increased job satisfaction
- Team cohesion
- Increased staff retention and lower absenteesism
- Increased producivity for business operations
- Cuts costs - Improves competitiveness of business
HOWEVER
- Poor business performance
- Additonal costs
- Employee stress, anxiety, absenteesim and low retention rates
Job design
CASESTUDY
Specific Tasks
Apple utilises a specific job design strategy, particularly in Apple stores where different employees are designated specific roles (Customer service, laptop sales, Genius Bar, so as to increase the efficiency of the process but also the value the customer feels.)
‘Experts’ - Assess customer needs and provide a solution
‘Geniuses’ - Engage in the provision of technical support
- The colour of Apple retail staff shirts indicate their role
- Results in greater productivity of Apple employees
General Tasks
Asking customers questions - Developing and exhibiting strong interpersonal skills - Engaging with employees in an outgoing and friendly personality
Recruitment
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 appropriate staff
- Recruitment begins AFTER job design.
Stages include:
- Attract appropriate candidates
- Check background, qualification/s
- Verify experience
- Select employee from short list
Recruitment Implications
Poor Recruitment/Selection process leads to issues of:
- Increased costs
- Lower productivity
- Training costs
- Job dissatisfaction, lower performance, industrial labour turnover
- Increase in absenteeism
- Increase in accident or defect rates
- Claims of discrimination
Recruitment
Internal Recruitment
Involves filling job vacancies with people from within the business.
- Motivational for staff
- Development opportunity
- Builds commitment and loyalty
- Business only needs to hire at base level
- Employees know the culture and operations
- Recognises and rewards staff for effort and achievement
HOWEVER
- Can reinforce negative culture
- Can lead to rivalry for positions
- Need established framework for training and merit-based appraisal system
- Little value added, no new skills
Recruitment
External Recruitment
Involves filling job vacancies with people from outside the business.
- Wider applicant pool
- New ideas, perspectives and skills may produce better solutions to business issues
- Get specific skills needed, save on training
- Dilutes internal politics
- More diversity in employment (EEO)
- Builds organisational ‘brand’ through publicity
ADVERSLEY
- Risk of unknown staff
- Lost productivity in initial phases of orientation and induction phase
- New employee may not fit culture, and may not be accepted by internal rivals
- Takes a lot of effort and time
Recruitment
Specific skills
Highly specialised and required by businesses to address a skills shortage
- Programming
- Machinery
- Engineering
- Lack of supply of certain skills
- Required certain businesses to source/recruit employees overseas based on having specific skillsets
- Negative perception on Australian businesses who do this as it demonstrates that businesses are not willing to train existing/new employee to possess these specific skills
- Led to an increase in employee poaching
Recruitment
General skills
Includes flexibility and versatility, social confidence, positive attitudes, motivation and the ability to work as a team and/or independently.
- Many jobs require individuals to work independently and undertake many different tasks
- Generally more service oriented, making social and information skills increasingly important.
- Assist with gaining employment and career progression
- Indicates to HR that the employee has a capacity and willingness to learn
HOWEVER
- May require employers to engage in further training and development to improve employee skills to the required standard
- Time and cost intensive
Recruitment CASESTUDY
Apple uses both internal and external recruitment strategies
- Apple use their website to attract a diverse range of candidates
- 99% of roles are advertised internally (Internal recruitment)
They offer an employee referral bonus for the successful placement of candidates
External - Targeted recruitment campaigns used
- Targeting females by advertising on ‘CareerMum’
- Mothers wanting to return to the workforce to consider working for Apple Retail.
- Tim Cook was internally recruited for the position of CEO in 2011
Training and development
- Current skills
- Future skills
The aim of training and development (T&D) is for long-term change to skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour
T&D programs have TWO focuses:
- Current skills needed by the business
- Future skills for business growth
Implicatons
- Conducting a skills audit and/or systematic evaluation of skills and employee capabilities
- Understanding supply/demand of certain skills within the industry
- Aligning with future direction and vision (What skills will be needed in the future)