By definition, Management refer as to the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the organizational resources so as to reach the targeted goals. The approaches used to manage the resources and reach organizational goals may vary from manager to manager, though managers may have the same responsibilities or tasks to perform. These approaches are what called management styles. Learning and understanding different styles of management may help a manager to know how to guide the employees and improve his or her self management skills.
What are management styles?
Management styles are the methods used by managers to guide and inspire their teams to reach organizational goals. This can involve how managers organize work, make decisions and delegate works. Managers may have the same responsibilities to perform but use different approaches to get work done. Management styles have greater impacts to employee's motivation, creativity, engagement and performance. However, not each style can suit every context. The styles can vary based on factors such as the type of company, level of management, the industry, the country, culture, and personalities of the manager. Therefore, as a manager, it is important to understand the management styles better and select the best style that can be right for you.
Management styles
As a manager, you need to understand how various management styles work and know which context or situation they are more effective. This can help you to choose the best style to apply in your team. The following bellow are management styles with their pros and cons.
1. Democratic or participative management style
In this style all team members have a room to share their ideas and opinions. Managers collaborate with their teams but still can make final decisions on their own. Democratic management style encourages creativity and make employees feel valued in an organization. However, using this style can take long time to come up with one decision due to long discussion with the team members.
Advantages of democratic style
- Allows inputs from team members, this can help managers to get better ideas and opinions.
- Employees feel more valued which can lead to increase in working morale and engagement.
- Builds good relationship between managers and employees.
- Promotes creativity.
Disadvantages of democratic style
- Since it involves inputs from all team members. It can take long time to collect ideas from the members, discuss them and make a final decision. Therefore, it is not good in a situation where quick decisions are needed, when there is no time for discussion.
When is democratic style more effective?
Democratic style is good when managers require creative ideas especially in long-term decisions that can impact the whole organization. But also good when there is enough time for discussion.
2. Autocratic management style
This is a management style that follows a top-down approach. Whereby managers are decision makers and require little or no inputs from subordinates. Autocratic managers usually give orders and directions rather than inspiring their teams toward reaching goals. They mostly don't like to ask for feedbacks and give punishment when employees do wrong. Always employees under autocratic management style are unmotivated and sometimes quit a job.
Advantages of autocratic style
- Quick and easy decision making since manager is the only decision maker. Thus, it saves time.
Disadvantage of autocratic style
- Employees may feel not valued and unmotivated, this can lead to high turnover.
- Lack of creative ideas that employees could contribute if they were involved.
When is autocratic style more effective?
This style works better when a business faces a crisis, when it is necessary to make effective decisions quickly.
3. Laissez-faire management style
Laissez-faire is a French word that means "let it go". The laissez-faire style of management is a hands-off approach in which employees perform their job independently without supervision or interference from their managers. Managers give their employees a freedom to make decisions and seek for solution against the challenges they face on their own. Laissez-faire managers don't give direction on how to perform the job but also don't ask or give their employees a feedback. However, they can be available when employees need them. This style encourages leadership and problem-solving but cant work with employees who are not self-motivated and skilled who don't thrive on independence.
Advantages of Laissez-faire style
- Develops leadership and problem-solving skills.
- Promotes autonomy which can also boost the working morale.
- Encourages creativity especially to motivated employees.
Disadvantages of Laissez-faire style
- Employees may feel damped and unsupported since managers let them perform job on their own.
- Employees may lost direction due to lack of guidance and supervision.
When is laissez-faire style more effective?
This method is good to use to teams that can work independently without supervision.
4. Transformational management Style
This is a management style that focuses much on motivating employees to grow and develop as well as inspiring them to be more creative (think out of the box) to reach the goals. Transformational managers tend to lead their teams by examples just like a team-coach. They push vision and mission of the company forward and usually like to provide and seek for feedback from their top managers and the employees they supervise.
Advantages of transformational style
- May result to highly innovative team since employees work under environment that support innovation and creativity.
- Increases engagement and performance level as employees are usually motivated under this style.
Disadvantages of transformational style
- Some employees may fail to cope with rapid changes. Therefore this style needs employees who can adapt dynamic environment easily.
When is transformational style more effective?
Transformation management style is best for organizations in competitive industries that change fast, for instance Tech companies. But also best for organizations that undergoing significant changes.
5. Transactional management style
This style relies much on rewards and punishment to inspire team members to attain goals. It is much effective to straight forward tasks especially when are required to be done quickly. However, transactional style discourages innovations and self-motivation. Employees may show good performance not because they love and appreciate what they do, but because of rewards or punishment. Therefore, this style can't work well in environment that requires creativity, innovation or complex problem-solving.
Advantages of transactional style
- The motivation comes from rewards can boost working morale and raise employees performance.
- Tasks can be done on time due to the influence of rewards.
- Employees know what is expected.
Disadvantages of transactional style
- The rewards may destruct intrinsic motivation to employees who are already self-motivated. Then they may start working for rewards not passion.
- Focuses much on day-to-day tasks rather than creativity and innovations.
- Not all employees are motivated by rewards, thus it may not work to all employees.
- Usually based on motivating employees toward short-term goals not long-term goals.
When is transactional style more effective?
This style is best to jobs that are monotony in nature that lack varieties (boring jobs).
6. Bureaucratic management style
This is a management style that uses rules, policies and procedures to lead and control rather than using manager's interests or personality. This style is considered too strict and may discourage engagement, creativity and innovations. It is highly recommended not to use bureaucratic style in innovative environments.
Advantages of bureaucratic style
- Rules, policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. This can help to reduce ambiguity.
Disadvantages of bureaucratic style
- It is too strict, this can discourage creativity and innovations.
When is bureaucratic style more effective?
Bureaucratic style work best in organizations with big number of projects and workers to accommodate.
7. Micromanagement style
This style is characterized by excessive level of supervision. Managers oversee almost every detail of work. The micromanagement style can ensure tasks are done at required standards, but employees may feel uncomfortable due to high level of supervision. This style discourages autonomy and job satisfaction which can lower employees performance.
Advantages of micromanagement
- Since managers oversee every detail of work, it's easy for them to see areas of correction. This can guarantee quality and standard work.
Disadvantages of micromanagement
- Destruct comfortability to employees
- Lack of autonomy
- Poor performance and sometimes leads to turnover
When is micromanagement more effective?
Micromanagement style is useful in hazardous jobs that needs high supervision.
8. Servant leadership style
This style prioritizes employee's needs rather than manager's needs or company's projects. The managers who use this approach usually don't like to criticize or give their employees extra works. They prefer creating good relationship and protect happiness of their team members. The employees under this style feel valued and can result to high working morale.
Advantages of servant leadership style
- The employees feel trusted and engaged this can raise up their working morale.
- Builds good relationship between employees and their managers.
Disadvantages of servant leadership style
- It can be hard to balance employees needs with company's objectives.
When is servant leadership more effective?
Servant leadership works better to nonprofit organizations, public services and administration as well as to teams that innovate together.
9. Charismatic management style
This style relies on manager's charisma or personality. Charismatic managers or leaders have high motivational and inspirational ability. They can unify team members to make everyone engaged.
Advantages of charismatic style
- Creates unity and encourage team work.
- Motivates team members toward reaching goals.
Disadvantages of charismatic style
- A charismatic manager may abuse power
When is charismatic style more effective?
This style work best when inspiration is required to reach the goals.
10. Situational management style
This is a style that mix all of management styles, whereby a manager changes approach according to situation and needs of his employees. Situational style requires a manager to have knowledge of all management style so as to be able to select the best one to go with in a current situation.
Advantages of situational style
- It is flexible (it changes according to current situation and needs) and applicable to any type of team.
Disadvantages of situational style
- It's hard for managers to apply this style unless they have knowledge of all types of management styles.
When is situational style more effective?
Since it is flexible, It is more effective in dynamic environment.
Factors influencing management styles
There are various factors that can influence management styles in an organization such as organization's culture, technological changes, project type, organization structure, manager's personality, position and experience of employees.
Company's culture
These are shared norms, standards, attitude, beliefs and behaviors that identify a company to the outside world. Every company has it's own culture that distinguish it from other companies. The culture of an organization can influence the choice of management style to go with. In this case, managers choose approaches that cope with the culture of their organizations.
Task type
The type of task to be performed can determine which management style a manager should use. Some tasks may require high supervision while others may require little supervision from a manager or a leader. For example, when employees perform dangerous tasks that require adhesion of process, a manager may decided to use micromanagement style. Whereby, in this style manager oversees every tiny detail of the work to ensure the work is done in required standards and qualities. This style is also good when employees are doing new tasks they are not experienced to.
Employee's Experience
The experience level of employees can also be a reason for a manager to decide which style to use. Usually, inexperienced employees require high attention and guidance when performing their tasks, otherwise may loose direction. Unlike experienced employees who can perform their tasks without guidance or directions from their manager because they know how to do. In this case, a manager can use coaching style to employees who are not experienced to a job. This style involves high attention to employees, giving them guidance and direction on how tasks are done as well as giving them feedback.
Organization structure
This is a skeleton of organization. It shows who to report to who in a hierarchy. The structure of organization can influence the use of certain management styles.
Technology advancement
Due to technological advancement, organizations may change their management approaches so as to embrace the technology.
Manager's personality traits
Personality traits are the characteristics, behaviors and qualities that distinguish a person from others. Some examples of personality traits are confidence, empathy, curiosity and discipline. These traits can be acquired by a person through heredity, environment, economic factors, society and family he or she was raised. The personality traits developed into a manager can influence him or her using a certain type of management style that is relating to his or her behaviour. For example, suppose a manager was raised in a very strictly family. He or she may also be very strict at job as he may acquire this trait from his parents. Perhaps, this manager will prefer using autocratic or bureaucratic style of management since these two styles relate to his traits.
Conclusion
Those were 10 management styles for effective leadership. Each style has pros and cons but choosing the right one can bring positive effects to a group or team you lead. Every style might be good to use depending on situation. But the most recommended are styles that encourages motivation, innovation, creativity and autonomy. Since they can boost working morale and performance and guarantee goals achievement.
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