MANAGEMENT STYLES IN ORGANISATIONS

Management Styles in Organisations

Management Styles in Organisations

Introduction

People are the main resources of any organisation and any organisation is only as good as the people who worked with in it. Organisation can only achieve goals and objectives by the co-ordinated efforts of their members and it is task of management to get work done through other people. Management is fundamental to the effective operation of work organisations.

Within an organisation one of the factors that has to be taken into account when choosing how a business is run is management styles, this is the way in which a manager goes about running a business and defines the inputs employees have in the business.

Management styles vary in organisations and vary depending on the type of character a manager has. Management styles show the way in which a managers regulate employee's activity. There are many different styles of management; many of these can be defined under the following headings…

• Democratic

• Consultative

• Autocratic

• Supportive

• Collaborative

• Passive

• Directive

These management styles will differ with each manager and depending on the culture of the organisation they could be used in various situations to ensure the smooth running of the business.



Democratic

A democratic management style is that of which a manager takes the views of employees into consideration and allows them to have a say in the running of the business. The management objective by using a democratic style is to allow the employees to have an influence over their working conditions. A manager who is democratic is likely to spread the workload out among the employees. There will be more communication involved with this type of management, managers and employees at different levels are likely to discuss matters and come up with conclusions together. It may be the case that sometimes voting is used to ensure that in true democratic style opinions from everyone is taken into account.

Consultative

A consultative management style can be seen to be very similar to a democratic style. Consultative management involves the managers asking employees for their opinions and they will use this to assist their own decision making. The process of decision making may involve a small or large group of employees forwarding their ideas and opinions to assist with decision making. Where consultative management is differentiated from democratic is that despite the view from these employees it is actually the managers who have the overall decision making power, this will mean that managers are able to have control over the business and they can monitor and control what decisions are made.

Autocratic

An autocratic style is one of which the manager generally gives specific instructions that have to be carried out by staff. In this sense the manager is generally giving out instructions, this does not generally lean towards a democratic style in that the manager would not be seeking opinions from other employee's. An autocratic manager will direct employees as to what they want them to be doing and not involve the opinions of these ...