by Lito on October 10, 2007
The basic assumption of democratic leadership is that the social nature and relationships of workers are the most important factors to be considered. The democratic style assumes that if subordinates are happy, they’ll also be efficient and productive. In other words, if you give the workers all they want, they’ll give you all you want.
A democratic manager usually accounts for poor production or low efficiency by making such statements as, ”No harm done; it’ll turn out better the next timeout or ”Well, you experienced a little bad luck, but. don’t sweat about it; we all make mistakes.” Using this approach, the democratic manager hopes not to cross anyone or upset them.
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by Lito on October 8, 2007
There are basic assumptions in the authoritarian style of leadership.
These are:
The productive unit in any work situation is the worker.
The most important working relationship is that of superior to subordinate.
In planning the activities of the unit, the authoritarian manager arranges the physical layout so that people can’t form social groups. This manager attempts to prevent the social nature of human beings from interfering with the work to be done. Authoritarian managers plan, organize, coordinate, control, and direct all by themselves. The employees are to do the work, and they must do it exactly the way they’re told to. Ideas about possible changes or improvements aren’t tolerated. Above all, any employee who “talks back” is an ungrateful subordinate who will be either watched or fired.
In the authoritarian style of leadership, no provision is made for the psychological needs of workers. Work doesn’t have to be meaningful; it just has to be done. When complete planning is in the hands of this manager, there’s no challenge for the subordinate; work becomes a mechanical process. Because the dominant concepts in this style are authority and obedience to authority, mutual trust is virtually eliminated. The authoritarian manager’s creed is to obtain maximum productivity by making the worker completely subject to management dictates. This style of leadership usually results in resistance by subordinates or workers. Sometimes the results achieved through authoritarian management are relatively successful. However, there’s much evidence available to indicate that other styles of leadership are usually much more successful.
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by Lito on October 5, 2007
One (the most important functions of executive leadership is setting the direction for the organization by identifying basic goals. Once these goals have been set, it may take a long period of time for the organization to make progress towards them. Leadership can then be measured periodically by its effectiveness in meeting goals. For example, if a goal was set to gain a 30% market share within three years and the market share is 20% at the end of this period, the effectiveness of the effort was 67%.
Ideally, leaders should adopt a style that fits their subordinates’ personalities as well as the task at hand. This will achieve optimum effectiveness and efficiency. Why? Because the effectiveness or efficiency of leadership isn’t dependent on the particular style of the leader, but on whether or not it’s appropriate to the work, the worker, and the situation.
Leaders often find situations where they must alter their personal style in order to successfully accomplish the task at hand.
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by Lito on September 15, 2007
As we’ve seen in our discussion so far, poor or improper delegation of authority can result in confusion and indecision on the part of subordinates. The end result can be a breakdown in the whole system of management. Therefore, a few words of caution are in order at this point: Delegation has a potential for management failure! However, the risk of failure is also present whenever managers plan, organize, motivate, and control. So, in this sense, delegation is simply one of several high-risk activities in any management system.
To overcome weaknesses in delegation, the following guides can be used:
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by Lito on August 29, 2007
The primary purpose of delegation is to make an organization work. Just as no one person in an enterprise can do all of the tasks necessary to complete a project, so it’s impossible, especially in a growing enterprise, for one person to exercise all of the authority for making decisions.
There is also what you call “the span of control”, which is the limit to the number of persons any manager can effectively super-vise and make decisions for. Once this limit is passed, authority must be delegated to subordinates, who will make decisions within the area of their assigned duties.
1. Authority is delegated only when discretion to act is vested in a subordinate by a superior.
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