An Essay on Various Management Styles

Each organization and company has a different styles in their management but the principles of it is to underline the methods, abilities and techniques on how the superior or manager use in handling the situations and express their leadership in within an organization. Different sources stated different type of definition and types of managerial style. According to HR Zone, managerial styles are polarised in between autocratic and permissive (Anon., u.d.). Whereas according to The Times 100, there are four types of management style which are autocratic, paternalistic, democratic and laissez-faire (100, 1995-2014). It is important and needs for the manager to learn to adapt their management style in order to ensure the employees respond.

The most commonly used by companies and organisation management style are democratic or participative management, Laissez-faire management, bureaucratic management, and autocratic management (style, 2014). Autocratic managers, origin from the word autocrat, do not make their decisions with any participation from the other stakeholders nor are any interactions with the others based on communicating these decisions. It is more like a dictatorial style as well. In autocratic management style, the superior tends to retain control and there is no consultations provided. They like to tell their employees or those who work under them what to do and they expect that their subordinates will obey to their instructions. Autocratic management tend to practice on one-way communication rather than two way communications. In this type of management style, it can help the productivity in a company or organisations because urgent tasks that need doing quickly can be completed or there is an element of risk about the work can be done on time. In this style, it might works well to those people who does not have any own decisions making or who love to follow as what they are told to do (style, 2014). However, this type of management may lead to lack of creativity of the company or it may resist if employee have no input because it is may helps a company productivity through commitment or ideas provide by the employee and have a sense of belonging to the company (100, 1995-2014). Usually directive autocratic manager supervise their subordinates closely while permissive autocrats will give their employees some degree of freedom as in how they work towards in achieving their goal. Persuasive managers are deeply different from autocratic style; however, they do put in the effort in convincing the employees of the benefits on their decision making (Anon., u.d.). As for consultative managers, it is slightly different from autocratic managers because they try to male decision which will take into account of the employee needs but employees are not allowed to provide any feedback and the flow of information is almost exclusively top-down. As permissive managers, they are also known as democratic managers in certain sources where they allow feedback from staff to provide some form of input into the decision making process and it is taken into consideration when making decisions but to a verifying degrees (Anon., u.d.). As for Laissez-faire management style, it is different from autocratic style because there is no direction or instructions or little from the managers or superior and their subordinates and employees are free to make the decisions. In certain resources, it is also known as hand off approach where the superior or employer will leave their subordinates to get on their job by themselves (style, 2014). Usually Laissez-faire practices two way communications where they will regularly get their feedback from the employee for this approach to work. However, chaos may take place because there is no centralised control and things might go wrong. This type of management gives the impact towards those who are highly skilled, trained or expert teams (100, 1995-2014). According to The Times 100 (100, 1995-2014), paternalistic management style is as with autocratic but with a slightly different from autocratic where it is more sensitive towards employees feedback (Touchpoint, 2014) and it takes much responsibility for decision making but with a caring attitude for the employees (100, 1995-2014). Superior or the managers who hold on this type of management style are concerned towards their employee’s feelings and wellbeing but they will not put any individual ahead the company or organisation success.

Pros of using this management style is where the employee may feel being appreciated and valued, however the cons is that they will be frustrated because they have only a little scope of making decision (100, 1995-2014), which means even though they voices out their opinion, the last and final decision making is still on the hand of their superior. Democratic management style will seeks for all the stakeholders’ opinion into account and also achieve the consensus before reaching the final decision and also the superior encourage the participation of their employees. They will also share information within their own team members and also provide opportunities for the team to influence the decision making. In this management style, it will gain the commitment from the team members and particularly when changes need to be made (100, 1995-2014). This style of management encourages more trust, harmony, productivity and job satisfaction in the overall organization. It might be useful for a small business organization or company because the feedback from their employees has the chance to be taken up. Most of the company and organization are practicing this management style in order to achieve a better productivity level.

However, this style of management can be frustrated slowly, having all different parties being involved in the decision making for an easy or more seamless implementation process, but they are more likely to buy or support the decisions anyhow (Touchpoint, 2014) and sometimes the employees does not know how to do make their own decisions and they want their superior to make the decisions (style, 2014). Besides, if too much consultation time is being used in decision making, thus it will affects the company or organization productivity and reduces in its outcome. According to Bank of America, active leadership management tends to lead their subordinates and employees by example or being a role model and a high standard was set for themselves and also their employees. Usually the employers or superior will not ask an employee to do on a task that they are unwilling to do themselves. In this management style they are involved highly in a day-to-day work and are fully aware of what is happening in the office or workplace (Touchpoint, 2014). As for directive leadership management style, it stands less than authoritative compare to autocratic management style but the leaders do not typically solicit the employee input. They will uses a short time frame, an unpredictable client or any of an emergency situation as a reason or excuse for acting unilaterally. It might be true for certain times but other times they will have a bit more difficulty of letting go of control (Touchpoint, 2014). There are another several types of management style such as participatory, servant and task-oriented management style. According to The Times 100 (100, 1995-2014), participatory management style based on a coaching philosophy and it focuses more on empowering the employees and seek for their own knowledge and make their own decision when it is appropriate (100, 1995-2014). Whereas servant management style is based on people come first philosophy where it is famous with the writer Robert Greenleaf.

This is based on finding talented people in order to run the company or organization and thus give power to them to do what they can do the best. The leader can sees him or her as a ‘servant’ to the customers and to encourage the workers to adopt to the same attitudes (100, 1995-2014). The final style as stated in The Times 100 is task oriented management style where the employer or leader will use this style of management probably have been a project managers before. In this management, they are expert or professionals in planning projects, allocating resources, assigning roles, setting benchmarks and keeping to strict deadlines. In our workplace, democratic management style is being practice by our company. They practice a two way communications where they take up the opportunity for the employees to voice out their ideas and suggestions in company decision making. They will consult their team members first before they make any decisions while it still maintains overall results. This way of communication actually builds a good rapport in between the employer and employee because they not only open up to the stakeholders but also those who are working for the company to feel being appreciated and being valued. In this management style, they take in the respond from their subordinates and workers seriously in order to achieve a better workplace environment and productivity of their company. By practicing this management style, it not only improves the productivity of a company or organization but it will also help to identify the problem earlier and easier.

And with a good communication with the staff, it can also improve the job satisfaction and benefits staff morale too.

Cite this page