MARKET LEADER/ Upper-intermediate 3rd ed. BUSINESS BRIEF

MARKET LEADER/ Upper-intermediate 3rd ed. BUSINESS BRIEF

UNIT 7: MANAGEMENT STYLES

Traditionally, the model for leadership in business has been the army. Managers and army officers give orders and their subordinatescarry them out. Managers, like army officers, may be sent on leadership courses to develop their leadership skills. But some would say that leaders are born, not made, and no amount of training can change this. The greatest leaders havecharisma, a powerful attractive quality that makes other people admire them and want to follow them. A leader with this quality may be described as avisionary. Leaders are often described as having the drive, dynamism and energy to inspire the people under them, and we recognise these qualities in many famous business people and politicians. The leadership style of a company's boss can influence the management styles of all the managers in the organisation.

In some Asian cultures, there is management by consensus: decisions are not imposed from above in a top-down approach, but arrived at in a process of consultation, asking all employees to contribute to decision-making, and many western companies have tried to adopt these ideas. Some commentators say that women are becoming ever more important as managers, because they have the power to build consensus in a way that the traditional authoritarian male manager does not.

One recent development in consensual management has been coaching and mentoring. Future senior managers are 'groomed' by existing managers, in regular one-to-one sessions, where they discuss the skills and qualities required in their particular organisational culture.

Another recent trend has been to encourage employees to use their own initiative: the right to take decisions and act on their own without asking managers first. This is empowerment. Decision making becomes more decentralised and less bureaucratic, less dependent on managers and complex formal management systems. This has often been necessary where the number of management levels is reduced. This is related to the ability of managers todelegate, to give other people responsibility for work rather than doing it all themselves. Of course, with empowerment and delegation, the problem is retaining control of your operations, and keeping those operations profitable and on course. This is one of the key issues of modern management style.

Empowerment is related to the wider issue of company ownership. Managers and employees increasingly have shares in the firms they work for. This of course makes them more motivated and committed to the firm, and encourages new patterns of more responsible behaviour.

Discussion questions:

1. What qualities are essential for successful managers?

2. What is the role of a manager in different cultures?

3. How does ‘empowerment’ work?

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