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AQA A Level Business > Topic 2: Management and Leadership > Flashcards

Topic 2: Management and Leadership Flashcards

1
Q

What is a manager?

A

A person who has control or direction of an institution, business or of a part, division or phase of it.

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2
Q

What do managers do?

A
  • motivate staff
  • objectives
  • monitor and assess
  • gather resources
  • set goals
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3
Q

What are the 5 key roles of managers?

A
  • to plan
  • to organise
  • to control
  • reaching objectives
  • achieving the mission
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4
Q

What is the role of managers?

A
  • setting objectives
  • analysing
  • leading
  • making decisions
  • reviewing
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5
Q

What is the decision making cycle?

A
  • set objectives
  • analyse the situation
  • assess the resources available
  • make a clear decision
  • review the decision
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6
Q

What are the 3 levels of decision making?

A
  • strategic decisions
  • tactical decisions
  • operational decisions
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7
Q

What is the importance of decision making?

A
  • A scientific/logical approach
  • Based on experience/intuition
  • To avoid decision making fatigue
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8
Q

What is leadership?

A

Leadership means taking the initiative to set clear objectives and to motivate or guide staff towards their achievement.

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9
Q

What is management?

A

Management means organising and galvanising staff to implement the strategies needed to achieve the objectives.

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10
Q

What is a leadership style?

A

The way in which bosses deal with their employees is known as their leadership style. The 3 types of leadership styles are known as: autocratic, democratic, paternalistic.

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11
Q

What are autocratic leaders?

A
  • They tell employees what to do
  • Don’t listen to what workers have to say
  • Tend to use top down communication
  • Give orders, don’t want feedback
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12
Q

What are democratic leaders?

A
  • Involves workers in decisions
  • Listen to employee ideas
  • Make sure people contribute to the decision
  • Use two-way communication
  • Often delegate decision making
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13
Q

What are paternalistic leaders?

A
  • Acting in a paternal way
  • Care about welfare and being of staff
  • May consult staff to find out views
  • Decisions made by ‘head’ of the family
  • Think employees need direction
  • Important they are supported and cared for
  • Interested in security and social needs of staff
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14
Q

Advantages of Autocratic leadership

A
  • Allows fast decisions to be made
  • Improves overall communication
  • Improves productivity
  • Effectively handles crisis situations
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15
Q

Disadvantages of Autocratic leadership

A
  • Often leads to micromanagement
  • Doesn’t offer sense of professional ownership
  • Creates a system of dependence
  • Creates a lack of trust
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16
Q

When is autocratic leadership most appropriate?

A
  • When nature of work requires a strong centralised control

- With leader giving detailed orders and instructions and being responsible for making decisions

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17
Q

Define Laissez-Faire approach

A

Literally translates to ‘let you do’ is that the less the government is involved in the economy, the better the business will be.

18
Q

Advantages of Democratic leadership

A
  • Encourages participation
  • Brings in more viewpoints
  • Allows more efficient problem solving
  • Builds team relationships
  • Honesty is prioritised
19
Q

Disadvantages of Democratic leadership

A
  • Can lead to procrastination
  • Takes time to reach a general consensus
  • Poorly defined
  • Does not guarantee the best possible solution
  • Encourages no one to take responsibility for failiure
20
Q

Advantages for Paternalistic leadership

A
  • High employee loyalty
  • Employee best interest at heart
  • Good behaviour is rewarded
  • Feedback is encouraged
21
Q

Disadvantages of Paternalistic leadership

A
  • Discipline in a non traditional way
  • Employees will be dependent on employer
  • Poor staff motivation
  • ## Managers can become blind with power and make decisions that will only benefit them
22
Q

When is Democratic leadership most appropriate?

A

It works best in situations where group members are skilled and eager to share knowledge.

23
Q

Where is Paternalistic leadership most appropriate?

A

When a business has a more formal and hierarchal structure.

24
Q

What is the Blake Mouton Grid?

A

A model that highlights different management styles, according to their focus on the task and the people within the business.

25
What are the Key points of the Blake Mouton Grid?
- Different management or leadership styles - Some managers focus on the task - Some focus on the people in their team - Some are not interested in either task or people - Some gain the commitment of people to the task
26
When can you use the Blake Mouton Grid?
- When discussing influences and impact on different management leadership styles - Factors which determine what style is adopted by a manager/ leader.
27
What is the Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum?
A model which highlights the range of different management styles that may be adopted, ranging from a 'tell' approach to one that involves delegation.
28
What are the Key points of the Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum?
Highlights that there are a range of styles rather than categorising management and leadership.
29
When can you use the Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum?
- Advantages and Disadvantages of each approach - Factors that determine what style is adopted by a manager/leader - When a given style might be appropriate
30
What does the Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum show?
Demonstrates the relationship between the level of freedom that a manager chooses to give a team, and the level of authority used to by the manager. There are 3 sets of pressures that influence a leaders decision making approach.
31
What are the strengths of Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum?
Gives you a range of ways in which to involve and interact with your team. Allows you to understand how your approach should change as the situation changes. Allows experimentation.
32
What does the Blake Mouton Grid show?
Identifies 5 different leadership styles. - Team management - Authority/ Obedience - Middle of the road management - Impoverished management
33
Strengths of Blake Mouton Grid
Can help leaders understand their natural leadership style. | Leaders can create a personal development plan to progress towards a team management style.
34
How are decisions made within the business?
Most decisions in business are based on hard, probably numerical data and are therefore scientific. Some of the most important, though, are intuitive - a combination of experience and a feel for the future.
35
What are tactical decisions?
They help to implement the strategy. They are usually made by middle management. Managers would want research data on likely customer numbers to help them decide on decisions.
36
What are strategic decisions?
They affect and shape the direction of the whole business. They are generally made by senior managers.
37
What are influences on decision making?
- Resource constraints - Have money for decisions - External environment - Risks with current climate - Ethics - Objective targets - Mission
38
Advantages of decision trees
- Allows for uncertainty - Managers can consider all possible alternative outcomes - Set out problems clearly and encourage a logical order - Encourage a quantitative approach - Shows expected values and probability of each outcome - Most useful when similar scenarios have occurred before
39
Disadvantages of decision trees
- All quantitative methods can be biased - Difficult to get meaningful data - Easy for a manager seeking to prove a case to manipulate data - Don't take into account variability of the business environment - May divert managers from the need to take into account qualitative as well as quantitative decisions
40
Define Opportunity cost
The cost of missing out on the next best alternative when making a decision.
41
Possible trade offs for a new business
- Help from friends vrs lack of potential professionalism - Starting a business vrs uni/travel/job - Activities you may enjoy vrs aspects of the business that prove most profitable - Time today vrs time tomorrow
42
Define stakeholders
A stakeholder is an individual or group that has an effect on, and is affected by the activities of an organisation.

AQA A Level Business (3 decks)

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