Management and Leadership Styles

Leadership and Management Styles – Frequently Asked Questions?

• What are the Best Management Styles?
• What factors shape Management Style?
• What are the different Management Styles?
• What is Theory X and Theory Y Leadership Styles?
• What is Management by Walking Around (MBWA)?
• What is Management by Objectives (MBO)?
• Types of Management Styles in the Workplace?
• What are the main Leadership Styles?
• What is Transformational Leadership?
• Management Styles Quiz?

Management Style

A Management Style is the particular way managers go about planning, prioritizing, and organizing work efforts to accomplish objectives within an organization. Management Style incorporates the way they make decisions, how they plan and organize work, and how they exercise authority.

Management Styles vary by organization type, level of management, and from person to person. A good manager is one that can adjust their management style to suit different environments and employees.

A leader’s Management Style is shaped by many different factors, including internal and external business environments, and how one views the role of the organization in the lives of employees.

“To add value to others, one must first value others.”

– John C. Maxwell

What factors shape Management Style?

Internal Factors: Internal organizational factors that determine a management style include:

• Internal policies
• Organizational priorities
• Organizational culture
• Internal skill levels
• Management skill levels
• Management philosophy – see Theory X and Theory Y
• Management motivation
• Management structures

External Factors: External organizational factors that affect management styles include:

• Types of consumers
• Types of suppliers
• The competition
• The economy
• The law
• The overall local culture

What is Theory X and Theory Y Leadership Styles?

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human work motivation and management. The theory proposes that management style is based on how a manager views human motivation and productivity.

Theory X model proposes that people inherently lack motivation and need to be supervised, directed, and controlled to achieve team objectives. This management outlook results in management styles that display high degrees of control over organizational members.

Theory Y proposes that it is human nature to be motivated by goals and that people gain satisfaction through the completion of work and objectives. This management perspective leads to management styles that share with the organizational members more decision making control and less direct supervision or control.

Theory Y Managers have a management style that is focused on creating environments where organizational members can develop their potential and utilize their skills to achieve objectives.

Douglas McGregor introduced Theory X and Theory Y in 1957.

“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.”

– Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What are the different types of Management Style?

Management styles can be categorized into three broad types: Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire. They each have their advantages and disadvantages which depend on the specific factors that shape Management Style as outlined above.

1. Autocratic: The Autocratic Management style is the most controlling of management styles. Variations of this style are authoritative, persuasive, and paternalistic.

• Authoritative: The Authoritative Management style has little trust or confidence in employees. This manager dictates orders to employees and expects that they do exactly as required.
• Persuasive: The Persuasive Management style is one in which the manager still makes all decisions but then convinces employees that these decisions were made in the best interest of the team.
• Paternalistic: The Paternalistic style is one in which the manager makes all of the decisions and treats the employees in a condescending or paternalistic way.

2. Democratic: The Democratic Management style involves managers reaching decisions with the input of the employees but being responsible for making the final decision. There are many variations of this style, including consultative, participative, and collaborative styles.

• Consultative: The Consultative Management style is one in which there is confidence placed in the employees, and management actively seeks out their opinions.
• Participative: The Participative Management style is similar to consultative but does not only seek out opinions and ideas, but they work together to make decisions as a group, and the staff is highly involved.
• Collaborative: The Collaborative Style is one in which managers communicate extensively with employees and make decisions by the majority.

3. Laissez-faire: The laissez-faire management style involves little or no interference from management. The staff is highly skilled, which allows management to take the hand’s off approach and leave the problem solving, and decision making to the team.

Variations of this style include the Delegative style and what is referred to as Self-managed teams.

“A leader’s job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be.”

– Jack Welch

What is Management by Walking Around (MBWA)?

The Management By Walking Around or MBWA refers to a style of business management which involves managers actively wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace, to chat and check with employees, equipment, or on the status of critical projects.

The benefits of this style of management are that a manager, by random sampling through employee discussions, is more likely to:

• Understand the organization’s morale
• Confirm the implementation of the organizational purpose
• Note productivity challenges
• Note quality management issues

This style of management is proactive and allows for the earlier discovery of any obstacles or opportunities.

What is Management by Objectives (MBO)?

Management By Objectives (MBO), also known as Management By Results (MBR), is the process of defining specific objectives or results that management share with the organization, and then managing to the achievement of the objectives or results.

The MBO style incorporates the measurement and comparison of actual performance with agreed targets. Ideally, when employees are involved in the goal-setting process and choose the course of action to be followed, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.

Management by objectives requires the manager and subordinate to jointly identify common goals, define each party’s responsibility in the targets, and use these measures as guides for operating and assessing each party’s contributions.

Management Styles FAQs to be covered with our Next Instalment

• What are the Best Management Styles?
• What are the Leadership Styles?
• What is Theory Z?
• Types of Management Styles in the Workplace?
• What are the main Leadership Styles?
• What is Transformational Leadership?
• Management Styles Quiz?

“Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.”

– Tom Peters

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“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort.”

– Vince Lombardi

What are the Best Quotes About Management Styles?

“Management by objectives works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.” – Peter Drucker

“Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.” – Brian Tracy

“Leadership is influence.” – John C. Maxwell

“It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, and how you’re led.” – Steve Jobs

“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” – Stephen Covey

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John Maxwell

“Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position”. – Brian Tracy

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” – Kenneth Blanchard

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” – Peter Drucker

“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” – John Maxwell

“Teachers open the door but you must enter by yourself.” – Chinese Proverb

“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John Rockefeller

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader

“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” – General George Patton

“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” – John Maxwell

“If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination.” – Noam Chomsky

“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Books about Management Styles

• Start with Why, by Simon Sinek, 2009
• The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker, 1966
• The Leadership Challenge, by Barry Posner and James Kouzes, 1987
• Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, by Herminia Ibarra, 2015
• Leaders Eat Last Paperback, by Simon Sinek, 2017
• Scaling Up Hardcover, Harnish Verne, 2014
• Death By Meeting: A Leadership Fable About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business, by Patrick M. Lencioni, 2004
• StrengthsFinder 2.0 Hardcover, by Tom Rath, 2007
• Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts, by Brené Brown, 2018
• The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership, by Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel, 2018
• Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead, by Laszlo Bock, 2015
• Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, by Charlene Li, 2010
• Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, by Barry Conchie and Tom Rath, 2008
• The Future of Leadership Development, Edited by Susan E. Murphy, Ronald E. Riggio, 2003
• Unlocking Potential: 7 Coaching Skills That Transform Individuals, Teams, and Organizations, by Michael K. Simpson, 2014
• The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities, by Jim Haudan, 2008
• Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, by Liz Wiseman, 2010
• Understanding and Changing Your Management Style: Assessments and Tools for Self-Development, by Robert Benfari, 2013
• Management Styles, Management Techniques and Management Methods, by Ronny Behr, 2016
• The Big 3 Management Styles, by Paul B Thornton, 2008
• Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, by Robert K. Greenleaf, 1977
• The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, by Barry Posner and James M. Kouzes, 2012
• Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity Without Getting Complicated, by Peter Tollman, 2014

“When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”

– Warren Buffett

Videos about Management Styles

Video Review for The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

Video Summary of The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

– Stephen Covey

Image Credit: Image by Gaby Stein from Pixabay

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