Management style is the procedure of leadership that a leader generally employs while running any kind of business. Depending on the business situations, a leader might need to employ more than one management style in a more formal way to have the highest degree of efficiency in their role. Leadership is less about your own requirements but more about the needs of the people and the company or business that you are leading.
Management leadership is all about exploring ways to meet the requirements of the employees and your organization. As such, there is no such single best management style, but the best management style is the one that completely meets the challenges that a person is facing and the needs of the employees that you are leading. Effective managers are more often flexible and are thus able to change their style of leadership management according to particular circumstances.
Most commonly used management Styles
As a manager, how one handles various situations in the business or working environment depends on the style of management a person’s use. Becoming a good manager involves much more than just telling the people what is to be done. Moreover, it also involves choosing the best approach and management style that suits the current situation.
Democratic or Participative Management Style
In this kind of management style, the manager always has a word with his employees to take an opinion about what they think, while still maintaining the overall control. The various group leaders make a proper management plan and decide how the work will be given and who are the people who will perform the desired task. However, always keeps in mind that the ultimate responsibility is with him only. The advantage of this kind of management style is that the consultation among the team members can help in the easy and timely identification of the problems and the good communication among various employees benefits the team morale. As every style has its own pros and cons, so too much consulting among the teams can be time consuming and further reduce the total productivity.
Bureaucratic Management Style
The Bureaucratic Managers have a habit to make sure that all the employees follow the rules and regulations accurately and consistently. These managers have the expectation from their employees that they display a formal, business like attitude in the work situation and respect the decision made by the manager. The style is most effective in the situation where safety is the primary concern. This kind of approach primarily maintains high standards in the situation that needs great attention in detail. However, at times, it also discourages independence and creativity among various employees and leads to the staff turnover.
Autocratic Management Style
It is a type of dictatorial style where the person who leads has the complete authority and control over the decision-making. They control the work of the employees and further monitor the completion of each task under strict scrutiny to make sure that every task is completed according to the plan and in a stipulated period. Moreover, this style can be an efficient method to safely navigate periods of stress or crisis. This management style is beneficial for the people who require pinpoint description of what is to be done.
Laiseez Faire Management Style
This is an approach where there is no interference of the manager and he leaves the work to be done by the employees on his or her own. The manager only plays the role of a mentor and simulator here. This management style gives the employees a sense of empowerment and they can encourage creativity and innovation. A disadvantage of the style is that at times issues may go undetected until they become very serious.
Classic Management Style
The classic style of management leadership defines what necessary amount of control the leader should give to the employees. This works well when the employees are skillfully trained and motivated.
Transformational Management Style
The transformational leaders have a clear vision of where they want their organization to reach and have the skills to implement that vision. In this management style, the leader inspires others largely through his charisma and visionary style of leadership. This type of management is best suited in the entrepreneurial businesses.
These commonly used management styles are practiced inside an organization. However, there are times, when the conflicts arise in an organization. Managers have to deal with different conflicts every day. Conflict management is the method of being able to find out the way to solve the conflicts sensibly, fairly and effectively. In an organization, every individual strives to prove how valuable are they to the company and this competition at times leads to various disputes and conflicts. Here are a few conflicting management styles that a manager can make use of to solve various disputes in the organization.
How to overcome conflicts
Accommodating
A manager is said to be accommodating if he or co-operates with the organization to a high degree. This may even work against a manager’s goal, objective and the necessary outcomes. This kind of approach is more useful if the other person is an expert or has a better solution for the problem.
Avoiding
Avoiding an issue is one of the ways that a manger may use to tackle any conflict. However, this kind of style deprives the manager and the other employees to reach their desired aim or goals. However, it may work in a case if the problem is minor.
Collaborating
Under this style, the managers become partners or team up with each other to reach to both of their goals in this style. This is the conflict management style where the managers break free the ‘win – lose’ paradigm and pursue only the ‘win – win’ paradigm. This style of conflict management can be more efficient in the complex areas where managers need to find a simpler solution.
Competing
This is the style of conflict management where the manager acts in a very positive way to get to his goals without needing to cooperate with the other employees. This is more beneficial at the time of emergencies when time is the most important thing.
Compromising
In this kind of conflict management technique, neither the employee nor the manager achieves what they want. It requires a moderate amount of assertiveness and cooperation. It is appropriate for the situation where both the sides have equally important tasks and a temporary solution is needed for the conflict to be resolved.
Forcing
This is a more strict way of resolving any kind of conflict. It involves using a formal authority or power that a person possesses to satisfy his concerns without paying any heed to the concerns of the person whom you are in conflict with.
Bad Management styles
Thus, resolving conflicts in an organization is not that difficult with applying these simple conflict management techniques. Besides, the conflicts there are various bad management styles that ruin the development of the organization.
Bullying
The managers to get their work done use this style at times. It can range from verbal to physical and it always has a threat of violence occurring in the organization. An adverse effect of bullying is that the employees enter a state of fear and are not able to produce effective results that are needed for the organization to grow.
Poor Communication
Communication is a very essential management style, which can either prosper the organization or ruin it. A bad or poor communication between the manager and the employees can lead to devastating circumstances. From the managers’ point of view, it involves such managers who are unable to give necessary feedback on the staff performance including the criticism.
Trust
Trust is also a management style. This can be said as if the manager does not have trust in his employees or vice- verse. In such cases, the management cannot be done appropriately and the whole organization suffers. The lack of confidence or trust leads to a reluctance to the delegates on behalf of the managers, which further leads to employees withdrawing their involvement in the working environment.
Discourtesy
This is also a kind of bad management style, wherein the manager does not respond to the employees in an appropriate manner. For example, if in an organization a manager does not greet his employees nicely, employees may feel neglected. This way he or she can develop a chain among the employees of the company that the manger is not good which ultimately leads to their resignation and the end of a peaceful and well-managed work environment.
Pride
There are circumstances, when the managers will not accept that they do not know something. To avoid questions from the employees they avoid them or base their decisions on the very little that they know about the matter. This is a habit of pride. It is a bad management style in the sense that a manger having ego issue scan not lead the organization to success.
Henceforth, these are some of the bad management styles that hamper the growth of any organization. To avoid such situations, it is necessary that both the employees and the manager learn how to manage the tasks effectively by learning the most appropriate or the best management styles.
Best Management Qualities
Following are the best management qualities that a person must possess in order to reach their desired aim or goals.
Planning
An effective manager is expected to plan efficiently and meet the necessary targets. In this method, one can start with setting up a successful team for the project and then meeting the team time to time for a goal setting or a review session. This requires clarifying what exactly the results are that a person is aiming for in the short term and long term. When the manager has a clear view of what is to be done and performs a two-way communication then it inspires the employees and helps in getting better results.
Leading
Plans are important, but they will work only if you have a group of employees that respect and follow their lead. This can be narrated by an example, if there is a constant deprivation of profits in the company; the manager needs to take effective and urgent steps that the team needs to follow. In order to lead in an efficient manner, it is necessary that the manager listen to the needs of the subordinates with an open mind. These are one of the best management styles that lead to the success of the organization.
Organizing
A vital key of a good manager is to get maximum value out of the given resources. The best way of management is to set a good example for the employees by the way you organize the things and minimize the wastage of time. This is one of the best ways of managing the tasks.
Controlling
Controlling is a key management style in which the manager has the ability to control all the work areas by working with the number of resources that are available. Moreover, controlling the issues by doing negotiation between the employees also makes things much simpler.
By Keeping The Big Picture In Mind
The manager must have a sound strategic mindset. The managers must ensure that they know their company well and that the activities or the tasks of various units and the departments are always firmly aligned with bigger initiative and strategies.
These are some of the commonly practiced best management styles that help the organization in reaching greater heights. Another very effective style of management is the Japanese Management Style. They focus on the people oriented management and the work oriented management. It relies on the personnel and human resource management aspects like the lifetime employment, seniority system and the groupism.
Henceforth, as a manager how one handles various situations in the work area completely depends on the style of management that one uses. An effective management style leads to better results in the future.