Micromanagement: meaning, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

Micromanagement is a leadership style in which leaders or managers check every detail of work so to be done at required standards. This style considered not to be good as it discourages self-confidence, motivation and creativity in a team.

This post highlights on the meaning of micromanagement, its characteristics, its advantages and disadvantages as well as the situation to which it is more effective.

Micromanagement in the World of Leadership - YouTube

What is micromanagement?

Micromanagement is a leadership approach that involves excessive supervision to employees. The micromanagers always oversee every tiny detail of work and usually ask for feedback at every stage of work and criticize the employees when seem to do against what ordered them. The micromanagers don't believe that their teams can do quality work without being supervised as they don't have trust with the competence of the employees they manage or lead. In this case, they don't let employees perform tasks on their own, instead, they always interfere in the process, this can destruct the employees confidence. These leaders normally use most of their time to oversee unnecessary details of work, instead of using that time to do other important things. The micromanagement style can ensure the quality and standards are met but might not be good to some extend since it hurts morale and creativity in a team or organization.

You can also read: 10 Management Styles For Effective Leadership (Pros, Cons, When to use them) And Factors Influencing Management Styles

Characteristics of micromanagement

The micromanagement is characterized by:

• Centralized decision-making: A leader is a decision maker and employees do what and how their leader instructs them. 
• Excessive supervision: A leader oversees every part of the work and frequently asks for feedback from the employees. 
• Lack of autonomy: Employees have no control of their jobs. No freedom for them to contribute ideas or make decision. 
• High turnover: Since it discourages motivation and job satisfaction to employees, the micromanagers experience high unusual number of turnover.

Traits of micromanagers

A micromanager may show the following behaviors:

• Oversee every small detail of work. 
• Usually not satisfied with the deliverables. 
• Always asks for frequent updates. 
• Sets rigid and unrealistic deadlines. 
• Like to measure and monitor every work. 
• Need to be added as a carbon copy (CC) in every email. 
• Focus on unnecessary details. 
• Don't have trust or faith on employee's competence thus they discourage employee's independent decision-making.

You can also read: Bureaucratic leadership style: meaning, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of micromanagement

Though this leadership style seems to be not good since it discourages motivation and innovations in an organization, still worth it to some extend. Using this style can guarantees quality and standard work, this because micromanagers oversee almost every detail of the work so it's easy for them to find out errors and solve them.

Advantages of micromanagement include: 

1. Leaders feels more connected with their lower employees.

2. Frequently oversight can help leaders identify errors and correct them, this can ensure that standards are met.

3. It ensures safety especially to hazardous works that require high level of supervision.

You can also read: Transactional leadership style: meaning, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

Disadvantages of micromanagement

The micromanagement is ineffective since it hurts the working morale, freedom, comfortability and creativity in a team.

Disadvantages of micromanagement includes: 

1. Employees lack confidence and comfortability due to excessive supervision.

2. Lowers working morale and satisfaction.

3. Discourages autonomy and creativity in a team. 

4. Employees have no power to make decisions on their own.

5. Low performance and productivity due to lack of working morale.

6. May lead to high turnover and absenteeism.

You can also read: Transformational leadership: Meaning, elements and traits of transformational leader

When is micromanagement suitable?

As any other leadership styles, the micromanagement can't work effectively to all situations. It can be more useful and effective in hazardous jobs that needs high supervision, where adherence of process is very important to maintain safety.

You can also read: Laissez-faire Leadership Style: Meaning, Characteristics, When to use, Advantages and Disadvantages