Although the cultural aspect in countries like Pakistan and Philippines, South Africa as compared to America and Europe has some influence to the management style to use. According to Wikipedia, there are various Management Style and there are also indicated in management grid” shown below. All managers use a management process. This process consist of four major components. Namely:- Planning; Organizing; Leading and Controlling. Then within the same process, there are different roles at different level of organization hierarchy. Briefly, the management process is described below:-
Planning Planning essentially is to set goal and chart out the key activities by its timeline for completion. The list of activities with their timeline is called a planning schedule.
Organizing Organizing is allocate resources such as people, material, money etc to support the job identified to be done and in accordance to the planning schedule. In the event of delay or ahead of schedule, organizing the people around is part of the major function.
Leading The art of Influencing other people to get this done while maintain the morale of the people Controlling To monitor and control the outcome of a target such as sales target and departmental expenses etc

management style

Each of the management style above has its unique features and if well understood, they can be your managing weapon to help you in your job function. These management styles when applied have different effect at different work environment. Therefore, it is imperative that you apply the most appropriate style or a combination of styles at the most appropriate time and situation to yield the maximum result. Never stick to only one management style.

Autocratic Management Style

In Autocratic management style, you give instruction to your staff to perform certain task without getting opinion or making consultation. If you are someone who like to control an office situation, then you tend to use this autocratic style. Although decision made are fast and prompt without involving others, work is usually completed on time. However this type of style may create a work environment where staffs are less motivated and build up a “wait for boss instruction” syndrome. In longer term, autocratic management style tends to drive away staff hence increase staff turnover.

When to apply: Autocratic Management style is most effective in situation when immediate decision must be made such as in the even of crisis, fire, or emergency.

Democratic Management Style

A Democratic Management style encourages a manager to delegate work task to his staffs. This style involves other people to get things done. A democratic style of management must come along with responsibility and it work more effectively when authority to perform the task is granted at the same time.  One important characteristic of this style of management is the staff who are been delegated the task must be given authority and must be competent enough to perform the task. Otherwise, delegation my be seen us “pushing away responsibility” For some reason, a democratic management style is mistakenly taken as those in politics where majoring make the decision. In a business environment, it is not the case of majority liking nor favor but it used to reflect involvement with the staffs and help is offered when needed.

When to apply: Democratic management style is most suitable if you want to train up your staff to make certain decision.

Participative Management style

Sound a little like democratic though this style is a way to get things done or make a decision with involvement of getting opinion from staffs. What is normally done is that you take the inputs from your staffs and modify them into your decision. A Participative management style requires more time but since a decision is required to make which affective others, getting feedback from the affective parties can cushion some negative impact during implementation. This management style has the element of democracy but it involve more intensive input from others. And the key difference is decision is based on logical evaluation of various options rather than by majority.

When to apply: Participative management style is used when you want to make certain changes of policy which affect one or more people benefits or morale. By doing so, the staff tends accept the decision more willingly.

Laissez Faire Management style

A laissez faire management style involve getting things done through people. However the way you get the job done is you set the tasks and give it to your staff a total freedom to finish the task entirely on their own. You do not or involve very little in the task. This type of style is sometime taken as irresponsibility because you are not really on top of the situation. Sometimes, it is a style of “let the nature take its own course” .

When to apply: It is most appropriate to apply this management style when dealing with confrontation or conflicts because you do not want to be seen as siding anyone. In conclusion, you need to understand each of these four common management styles and their application for different situation. The culture of the Asian country like Pakistan, Philippines may perceive each style differently . You cannot do with just one management style and hope to get things done. In an business environment, situation changes all the time and you have staffs behave differently as well. The chances is you need to apply all the four types of management style in your work areas with acceptable degree of one particular style.

In conclusion, there is no one management style to suit all situations. It is only wise that you learn to use various types of management style to manage your own business.

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