Management Style
Business: BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma, topic 5.1.4
Types of Leadership
Businesses are diverse in their size, structure and approach. One management or leadership approach, though successful in one business, may fail in another.
Factors which influence styles of management and leadership
- The external environment can affect the type of management or leadership style which is appropriate for a business.
- The culture of a business can affect the type of management or leadership style which is best suited to the business’ needs.
- For example, in businesses with a very clear and well-defined culture, a change of leadership style may be difficult to introduce without resistance from the majority of employees.
Factors which influence styles of management and leadership
- The skill level of the workforce can influence the type of management or leadership style used as managers may, or may not, want to involve employees in the decision making process.
- For example, managers and leaders often value the knowledge of skilled and qualified staff but less so when staff are unskilled or inexperienced.
Autocratic leadership
- Autocratic leadership refers to an approach by leaders or managers to keep control of decision making and ensure that employees are closely supervised.
- If a business has a largely unskilled workforce, a manager or leader may wish to maintain decision making powers and therefore adopt an autocratic approach.
Democratic leadership
- Democratic leadership refers to an approach by leaders or managers to discuss and consult with employees, delegate decision making authority and empower employees through their involvement.
- For example, in businesses which employee highly skilled and highly qualified employees, such as universities, Google and Microsoft, a manager or leader may decide that the contributions of such staff could be highly valuable to the business; here, a democratic approach may be suitable so that employees can contribute their expertise to the decision making process.
Laissez-faire leadership
- This is a manager which largely leaves subordinates to their own devices.
- The manager established a broad objective but does not get involved in the decision process.
- Communication is typically a problem. This is because the manager is not too involved and may not respond to messages. As a result, motivation may be low at times as employees feel directionless.
Test yourself on Management Style
In an unstructured business, would you expect a change in leadership to face much resistance?
Do managers and leaders prefer the input of skilled or unskilled staff?
Is autocratic leadership more typical in an organisation where the workers are unskilled or skilled?
What type of leadership style do Google and Microsoft use?