4 different styles

Management styles

Most people make hundreds of decisions every day. It is these decisions that allow us to manage our lives, enabling us to do the things we want to do, while working with and around: other people, time and the everyday problems which always seem to occur.

Similarly a business needs to be managed. An Organisation is not called that because it falls apart every five minutes, but because the various parts have been managed and organised in order to fit its purpose

How the various parts are managed and by whom, largely depends on the type of organisation /business and its aims and objectives and the management styles of the individual managers themselves.

Management in its simplest form is about how you make use of your resources. These resources can be anything from how your money is spent and balancing a budget, moving people around, , planning training, designing and placing items, in order to make the best of what you have.

There are four main management styles which can be employed within a business structure.

Management style 1: Is authoritarian and almost despotic. Policies and instructions are sent from the senior management and generally imposed directly upon the workers.

This sounds very Victorian with images of men in Top Hats and unskilled workers in flat caps and clogs.

However it really means that workers are not privy to management decisions, but are given tasks to do which fill the goals of the business. This style is generally used if decisions have to be made quickly or health and safety considerations are concerned.

Management style 2: is quite similar to the first, in that orders are given from the top and filtered down to the workers. Their is a subtle difference between telling someone to do something and telling them why.

This is a get along management styles. Staff are given an insight into some workings of the business. Their needs are met. Holidays, flexi – time, days off, maternity/paternity leave and crèches are acknowledged as long as the worker continues to fulfil the aims of the business. This style generally means that workers will stay with the organisation for longer.

Management style 3: involves communication throughout the business.
Why things happen like they do? What are we to do?
You are being trained to do this because…

This style puts senior management and workers at the same table even if they aren’t eating the same meals.

Workers are cajoled into taking part; they become a team and are allowed to speak about their own role in the organisation and how it can be improved. They are given training which can lead to a sense of “this is your business too”.
Workers feel if the do a good job they will get just as much benefit.

Management style 4: almost allows people to ‘do their own thing’. Workers and management are on the same level. The manager takes a step back from their responsibility for the workers letting them develop their own role in the department.

It is generally felt that some high performers are able to take to this sort of self-management and have the ability and motivation to make it work.

Most workers will however need some sort of focus and with no real management or leadership will fail at their tasks.

Taking each of these Management styles individually does not show a true picture of how a business should be managed.
It is likely that in most modern organisations many, if not all, of these styles are used at some time or other as changes to policies and practices are made almost on a week to week/month to month basis.

Which management style do managers in your organisation use, when and why?