I am going to look at the argument "there is no one best management style" from this it becomes necessary to look into different management styles extracting key theories and information which then can be used to create a well balanced argument. I feel this question highly relevant to modern industry, this is because in our society all employers will have a different working relationship with their staff these can have positive and negative effects I will look at the different styles used by managers and how they affect the staffs working environment in different circumstances.To look at this argument we first need to look into the connection between management and leadership as their is a close connection which can cause confusion amongst many people, from here we then need to address the different styles of management and which are the most poplar and widely used in UK industry. A lot of the argument will look at the British Watersports industry but will diversify towards other industrial areas. Leadership is merely a skill used by an effective manager Torkildsen says, "Leadership cannot be separated from management, though management is not leadership per se.An unorganized group can have a leader, but managers only exist in an organized structure where specific roles have been created.
" (Torkildsen, G. , 2005, 386) Torkildsen goes on to say, "The ability to lead effectively is one of the factors that produce an effective manager. " (Torkildsen, G. , 2005, 386) From Torkildsen's view, we can see that leadership has all the characteristics, which should be enforced and used by a good manager, but to be a manager certain other characteristics need to be put in place.Firstly, the organization needs a structure this needs to have specific jobs put upon people so as everyone can understand their task. A manager will then use key leadership styles to operate their company effectively.
There are several leadership styles but often it is hard to define what actually makes a good leader. It is far easier to recognise bad leadership. Within industry, bosses are looking at the outcome of the company mainly financial profits.So good leadership may encourage a high profit turnover, but maybe the staff are not completely happy.
Where as another company may not make as high a turnover but have good working relationships. Which could also be seen as a good leadership scenario. It very much depends what the expectations for the facility are. The main leadership styles looked at by many are, Autocratic, to be told what to do. Democratic, to be asked what you would like to do. And Laisses-faire, to be left to work with out outside interference.
These are the most widely used styles but offer a lot of variation between. Daniel Goleman reports research by the management consulting firm hay McBer involving almost 4,000 executives in a worldwide sample. This work identified six leadership styles, which have an impact on 'working atmosphere' and financial performance. The findings suggest that effective leaders use all of these styles. (Goleman, D. , 2000) Golemans six leadership styles were as follows.
Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting and Coaching.Within these are the three main styles addressed previously, But Goleman includes three other styles which kind of act as buffers between the others these allow a mixture of styles to be used effectively. For many jobs in the outdoor leisure industry, it is essential to keep a good working relationship with staff, as they are ultimately the next centre managers and top competitors. Different management styles will be used throughout the industry for example a centre manager may have quite a lasses-faire role by allowing the centre to run only stepping in, in the case of a problem within the centre.
An activity manager may take a very democratic leadership style by allowing his instructors the freedom to work but by working with them to keep best practice throughout all areas taught this allows both the activity manager and the instructors to work looking at sessions how improvements could be made and what is the best way of doing this. The democratic leadership style allows both parties to work along side each other with input from both sides this will keep a good working relationship.Instructors will use a very autocratic style of teaching this is because many groups are in for a simple taster session in which they come in for maybe an hour in which to take part in a climbing session and then out again onto a different activity. Because of this the instructors spend a lot of the time telling the group what to do this allows the instructor to be in control of the session as in modern day industry safety is paramount so a democratic mistake may turn out costly.The claim that their was 'one optimum type of management system' can be derived from a reading of Webers work, but has been expressed much more clearly in the literature of management (Child 1969). It was statements of such management 'principles' which provided the starting point for research by Joan Woodward which made a further influential contribution to the study of the relations between organisations and their environments.
Woodward initiated research 'to discover whether the principles of organization laid down by an expanding body of management theory correlate with business success when put into practice' (Woodward 1958, 4).From this, she studied between 1953 and 1957 covering 100 firms in southeast Essex. The researchers found that there did not appear to be any relationship between the success of a firm and its type of organisation (Woodward 1965, 30-3). From this we can see that research has shown that management styles and business success has no relationship, this will mean that any management style can work in suitable conditions. The management style will though have a direct relationship with the motivation and happiness of staff. One management style may suit one establishment but may then be totally unsuccessful in another.
It very much depends on both the industry and what is then expected from the company. For example in outdoor leisure their is generally a high turnover of staff due to the nature of the jobs. This means that managers need to be very open and friendly, making the staff changes possible with ease. Where as in a motorcar company, where people may work in the same plant for 20 - 30 years. This will mean the managers need to keep input from both parties with the view to making their jobs as hassle free as possible.
Their needs to be a high level of communication with this company.Then by leaving, the staff to work instead of keeping tracks on them will allow them to work with peace of mind and to the best of their own abilities. In conclusion, to the published items I have found, there is a lot which can be taken into account when commenting on the statement, "there is no one best management style". There are both positives and negatives, which can be looked at.
The reliability of each of the sources could be questioned. This is because in most cases the items have been written for text books, which means that the original sources should be looked at as a good reliable source until otherwise proven.However, some independent research may have been overlooked for example Woodward's research was carried out by a team of researchers of whom all carried different opinions and ways of looking at the task. In one of the questions 'Firms were classified merely as 'average', 'above average', and 'below average' (Woodward 1965, 10-16) from this it was very hard to categorise between a company whom is performing either average or above average the main question by all must then be. 'What is average? this was never released with the findings so how would the everyday person understand the workings of a company as mealy average.
This can be seen as an unreliability in the research as not clear units have been given, and because of this the findings must then not be seen as definite but mealy another item found As to my finding in this subject the statement, "there is no one best management style". I see to be a correct and well-balanced statement with an argument very much backing the statement. The only real floors are in some of the research, which may prevail to falsening the statement.However, I feel that in most modern day industry there are a lot of very different management style used by many different managers, the manager must use their own style with ideas of other styles used to keep both them and the staff happy. By working as your own person, it makes you flexible to employ in a variety of roles so you can bring in your own personality and style to get the best for you and for your companies turnover. A successful manager must be able to work well with their staff to get the job completed and to a good standard whilst then working within their unit to keep their own staff happy and keen to work well.
