How much latitude do managers have in what they do and how t

How much latitude do managers have in what they do and how they do it? Which term (\"captains of their destiny\" or prisoners of their fate\") best describes managers?

Solution

Managers have to perform several roles in a company and how they handle different situations will depend on their style of management. A management style is an overall way of leadership utilized by a manager. There are two contrasting styles:

Autocratic: Leader makes all decisions in unilateral way.

Permissive: Leader permits subordinates to participate in decision making and also gives them a considerable degree of autonomy in completing routine work activities.

Combining these categories with democratic (subordinates are allowed to participate in decision making process) and directive (subordinates are told exactly how to do their tasks) styles gives us 4 ways to manage:

Directive Democrat: Takes decisions participatively; closely supervises subordinates.

Directive Autocrat: Takes decisions unilaterally; closely supervises subordinates.

Permissive Democrat: Takes decisions participatively; gives subordinates autonomy in carrying out their work.

Permissive Autocrat: Takes decisions unilaterally; gives subordinates autonomy in carrying out their work.

Managers must also adjust their styles according to the situation that they are in. Stated under are four quadrants of situational leadership that depend on the quantum of support and guidance required:

Telling: Works better when employees are neither willing nor able to do the job (higher need of support and higher need of guidance).

Delegating: Works better when the employees are willing to do the job and know how to go about it (lower need of support and lower need of guidance).

Participating: Works better when employees have the ability to do the job, but need a high amount of support (low need of guidance but higher need of support).

Selling: Works better when employees are willing to do the job, but don\'t know how to do it (lower need of support but higher need of guidance).

The various styles are dependent on the situation and the relationship behavior (amount of support required) and task behavior (amount of guidance required).