Management Skills

Leadership

Motivation

Communication

Autocratic Maggie

Democratic Coca Cola

Laissez-Faire richard

Do not discuss or consult with employees.

Expects orders to be carried out immediately.

Communication comes only one way, from the top down.

It can be successful in specialised areas.

Evaluation: Won't work in modern businesses as employees do not like a dictator type manager. No manager can always be right, so not consulting can lead to inefficient decisions. It has a negative effect on staff morale.

Encourage works to give opinions.

More inclusive form of leadership

Creates job satisfaction and motivation.

Fosters a two way system of communication.

Encourages a community of intrapreneurship.

Evaluation: Its the most popular form in modern businesses. Management consulting leads to better decision making, good staff morale and facilitates the introduction of change in the workplace.

The main aim of the business are made known to staff.

Staff organise their work and make all the decisions.

Non-interfering/Non-involvement form of leadership.

Absence of clear direction and guidelines.

Evaluation: Not suited to the majority of companies. Lack of leadership can lead to a lack on consistency in decision making. Suitable for highly qualified and skilled people, such as scientific researchers.

Maslow's Theory of Motivation maslow-need-hierarchy

Maslow believed that we every person has needs which must be satisfied. Each persons needs are arranged on progressive levels. A person's job can satisfy these needs.

Physiological Needs: giving workers a basic salary.

Safety Needs: giving workers a contract of employment or a pension plan.

Social Needs: giving workers a chance to have friends at work.

Esteem Needs: giving workers a job title.

Self Actualisation Needs: giving workers challenging and rewarding work.

Evaluation: Maslow provided managers with information regarding what motivates employees at work so they give their maximum commitment. It highlights the need to make work interesting and challenging to avoid employee inefficiency and absenteeism. It also highlights that wages and job security are just some of the motivating factors for employees.

McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y image

Theory X Managers believe that most employees dislike work, avoid responsibility and lack ambition and dislike change and resist it. As a result they believe they must motivate employees by supervising the work closely, offer incentives and bonuses to get work done and threaten staff to ensure co-operation.

Theory Y Managers believe that most employees enjoy work if it is interesting and challenging, are committed, ambitious and driven and are motivated if consulted. As a result they motivate employees by making work interesting, aiming to satisfy their higher needs, discuss how the work should be done.

Evaluation: McGregor showed how employees react to different styles of manager and its impact on the business. He showed the benefits of a consensus style which is democratic rather than autocratic.

Barriers to Effective Communication:

  1. Language: using technical terms that the receiver may not understand.
  2. Authority: too many people giving instructions.
  3. Noise: not clearly hearing the verbal message, leading to misinterpretation.
  4. Time: not allowing enough time to read, understand and respond to the message.
  5. Information Overload: receiving too much information in too short a time.
  6. No Record: leading to future disagreements over what was said. Effective-Communication-Skills

Factors to consider when choosing a medium:
(a)Language:using technical terms that the receiver wont understand.
(b)Authority: too many people giving the different instructions.
(c)Noise: not hearing the message clearly or being misinterpreted.
(d)Time: not being given enough to read/listen/respond.
(e)No Record: important information can be lost if not written down.

Which Factors Affect The Medium You Use?
(1) Urgency: how urgent is the information?
(2) Suitability: are some forms more efficient than others?
(3) Secrecy: how confidential is the information?
(4) Legal Requirements: certain forms must be written down.
(5) Cost: how much does the communication cost?
(6) Speed: how fast can the information be communicated?
(7) Technology: what technology is available to transmit the message.

Types of Communication: Verbal (the spoken word), Written (the written word) and Visual (what is seen).

Meetings

AGM (Annual General Meeting), EGM (Emergency/Extraordinary General Meeting), Ad Hoc (deal with a specific problem) Formal Meeting (attended by shareholders, needs to have a quorum).

Duties of the Chairperson:

1.Set the Agenda.

  1. Open the Meeting.
  1. Follow the Agenda.
  1. Ensure everyone has a say.

Call for votes.

Duties of the Secretary:

  1. Before the meeting send out the notice and agenda, arrange the venue and provide all necessary material.
  1. During the meeting read out the minutes and make notes of everything discussed at the meeting.
  1. After the meeting write up the minutes of the meeting and arrange the next meeting with the chairperson.