Leadership Styles (7.1)

Chapter 7 - Organization and Management

Learning Objectives: To understand the role of managers and the different leadership styles

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To start off, think about it:

• What do you think the managers in a company do?

There are five different functions of management:

1. Planning: analyzing the current situation, the objectives, and plan how to achieve them;

2. Organizing: businesses need resources to meet their objectives (land, labor, capital) and managers are responsible for coordinating such resources;

3. Commanding: managers are also in charge of controlling, supervising, and motivating workers;

4. Coordinating: making sure that all parts of the business are working together towards achieving the same objectives;

5. Controlling: mangers have responsibility over the plans of achieving objectives: are they working? Is it on time?

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We have discussed before that delegation is one type of financial motivator. But what delegation really is?

• It consists of giving the authority to workers to make decisions and completing tasks on their own;

• Managers delegate because they may not have enough time or the right skills;

• Some managers are reluctant to do it as they are afraid of losing control, fear of a subordinate doing it better, or, “if you want it done right, do it yourself” thinking.

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Activity 7.7

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Different managers have different styles of leadership. These are the three most common ones:

1. Autocratic Leadership

2. Democratic Leadership

3. Laissez-Faire Leadership

Let's understand each of them in more details as we go further...

• Centralized decision-making (leader);

• Decisions are communicated to workers;

• Leader checks performance;

• Focus on what to do rather on who will do;

• It can generate low motivation

• It is good for fast decision-making situations (e.g. hospitals);

• Useful in situations which safety is on the line.

• The opposite of autocratic

• Discussion is the basis for decision-making; It can improve the quality of the final decision (more inputs/opinions);

• Two-way communication;

• Increases workers’ motivation;

• Useful when employees are skilled / experienced and interested in being involved.

• Very little supervision or input from the leader;

• “Let them do it” approach;

• Useful for creative tasks (e.g. product development, creating a new ad);

• Used for when workers have higher expertise than managers and better perform tasks on their own (e.g. research).

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Research Task:

Interview managers around the school to find out their leadership styles:

1. Explain that there are three types of leadership style;

2. Formulate 3 questions that will help you identify the leadership style of the manager;

3. Present your findings to the class.

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Which leadership style is the best one?

Choosing a leadership style depends on various factors, for example:

• The level of skills and experience of the workforce:

- Skillful and experienced workforce needs less monitoring from managers and therefore a democratic or laissez-faire approach may be a better fit;

• The time available for decision-making:

- Democratic leadership involves discussion and therefore requires longer time wheresa autocratic leadership works best for decisions that need to be made quickly;

• The personality of the manager in charge:

- Every manager has their own personality and will match their leadership style to it;

• The task to be completed:

- Creative tasks may be better performed under a laissez-faire leadership whereas repetitive tasks under autocratic leadership.

Sometimes managers mix the different leadership styles depending on the situation they are in - and that's OK!

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Case Study (p. 102)

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To-Do-List:

• Activity 7.8 (p. 101);

• Use Table 7.4

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Chapter 7 - Organization and Management