Collaborative
Collaborative managers work as part of a team with employees; collaborative managers take part in activities with employees and help come up with ideas together with them. Collaborative managers should have excellent people management skills as they are working together with a lot of employees in order to get a number of views and opinions and help combine them to find the most effective ways in which the business can function. There are different points a collaborative manager needs to take into account regarding decision making and putting a message across to employees. These points include;
- Defining what has to be done
- Assigning tasks to each of the employees
- Helping to resolve conflicts between any team members
- Creating reports to show progress in the business
- Evaluating progress of employees and the teams
Collaborative management is likely to focus more on employee/employer relations as managers will have to work together with employees to help create the best output for the organisation. Within their management of employees managers with a collaborative style will have to build relationships with employees and ensure that employees have respect for them, this will ensure that whilst the employees are giving advice to managers to some extent, they are also respecting the manager’s authority and adhering to regulations laid down by the manager. This management style will require employees who are competent enough to make decisions for themselves and have the ability to come up with ideas on their own, this management style will help motivation as employees feel they have more of an input into the business thus increasing productivity through this rise in morale.
Throughout looking at these management styles we see that there is an effect on how employee/employer relationships are developed with each management style, in some cases management styles have to be used to ensure that maximum productivity is obtained from employees, regardless of whether or not it develops employee/employer relations.
- How a management role can be affected by changes to the business’s aims and objectives or a change in the culture/structure of an organisation.
There are several different variables that can affect the managerial roles in an organisation. The culture of an organisation could be defined as an unwritten law of the workplace. Generally the culture of an organisation is not about rule and regulations, but more so about how the business generally operates. The culture of an organisation will define how the company adapts its methodology to suit certain tasks, and how it copes with various situations. Generally the culture of the organisation could be seen as what is expected from the employees and managers by the company. Generally companies will fall into one of four cultures; Power culture, Role culture, Task culture or person culture.
Power Culture is where the organisation is dominated by some individuals at the top of the hierarchical system; these people will generally forward the ideas and decisions for the entire company.
Managers who find that the organisation has changed to a power culture will have to ensure that they forward instructions to their subordinates and ensure these instructions are carried out properly. Demonstrating a power culture will mean that the manager will have to display authority within an organisation.
Role Culture is where the way in which the employees work is affected by various roles within the organisation.
Here managers will have to adapt their styles to work together with a variety of employees with varying skills. This will often mean that the manager will have to be trained in a variety of areas to ensure they are knowledgeable enough to manage the employees in different roles within the organisation.
Task Culture is where the culture of the organisation is defined by the diverse task that staff carries out. The way the organisation works will depend on the tasks employees are carrying out.
Here the manager will have be able to adapt their style to different situations, each task that employees may be carrying out will be different therefore the management will have to be trained in a variety of areas ensuring there are qualified to deal with motivation and giving assistance to employees in each area. Managers will be generally looking to increase efficiency in how each task is carried out.
Person Culture is where the organisations structure coincides with the views of the employees in the organisation. Here each manager will have to take on board opinions from employees and use a variety of ideas from employees to create a better output for the organisation. Manager’s interactions with the employees will have to be cooperative to ensure that employees have a fair say in the business activities. The managers will also have to ensure that they are able to take a variety of ideas to help decide upon the best and most efficient ways to carry out tasks
The objectives of an organisation are plans that the company is making and includes parts of the business the company wants to achieve. The objectives of the organisation usually consist of the basic factors of why the company is in business. The objectives will regard general ideas that the business wants to succeed in such as making a profit, and launching marketing campaigns to make the company name known.
The aims of the company are helped by the objective; the objectives turn the aims into shorter term achievable targets that will lead to the company achieving its goals.
The objectives of the organisation will influence the decision making of managers as they will have to run the business in a way that helps meet these objectives. For example if a company’s objective is to make a profit, the managers will have to ensure that their revenue is exceeding their costs.
Overall we see that a business can always change in several ways and managers will often have to adapt their methodology in order to support the new methods forwarded by the business. As a result of these inevitabilities a business should always be seeking to achieve maximum communication between the managers to ensure that they are aware of the company’s aims, objectives, culture and structure and they have ample time to adapt to any changes made.
- Whether a certain management theory is more likely to foster better employee/employer relations than another.
There are several theories that have been put forward regarding motivation. Theorists who have come up with motivational strategies have made evaluations of what makes employees motivated in the workplace. There are several theorists who have come up with ideas on how to motivate staff, these include, Taylor, Maslow, Mayo, Herzberg, Douglas McGregor, David McClelland, Peter F. Drucker and Fred Fiedler.
Each of these theorists has had different ideas on how to motivate staff, when using each theory in an organisation they are likely to have different effects on the relations between employees and managers.
Taylor
Frederick Taylor’s theories are based on the fact that employees are generally motivated by money in the workplace. Taylor emphasised the fact that employees were in the workplace to earn there wage and that motivation and management should be based around employee’s earnings.
Taylor felt that the incentive of pay should be used to reward good work via offering pay rises and bonuses; he also felt that poor work should be threatened with less money or dismissal. Taylor’s theories were based on the idea that employee’s wages should reflect their work i.e. the greater their output the more they earn and the lower their output the less money they should earn.
Taylor’s theory is an old fashioned type that does not encourage good employee/employer relations. This theory sees workers as only caring about the money they get paid and therefore they are not interested in other factors such as relations. Using this theory of management will be unlikely to attempt to make good relations with employees, as employees are seen to be working solely for the purpose of an income.
Elton Mayo
Elton Mayo carried out a study of workers in an electric company to find out the effects that altering working conditions had on the workers. During this study Mayo looked into how changing conditions like lighting and heating along with breaks between working and other factors affected the way in which the employees carried out their work. When carrying out this research Mayo found that employee productivity rose each time one of these working factors was changed, regardless of whether they were seen to be rewarding or punishing the employees.
Elton Mayo came to the conclusion that it was not more harsh working conditions or changes in any way to the factors in the workplace that made the employees work more productively, he stated that it was the fact that the management of the workplace were taking an interest in the employees thus making the employees feel more valued. When the employees felt that the management had concern for the employees it motivated them to work harder. Mayo’s work was the first to conclude that workers react to benefits aside from financial.
Using Mayo’s theory we see that employees thrive on interactions from the organisation, which makes them feel as though the management is concerned with them. This theory is likely to produce some relatively good employee/employer relations as the managers are in some way interacting with the employees, although this theory does not have a particular emphasis on management interacting with employees, it still has to some degree therefore it may be likely to produce some good relations.
Abraham Maslow
Maslow believed that the needs of human beings as workers are basic and are also needed by everyone. Maslow believes that needs such as safety are something needed by us all. Job security is seen to be one of the safety needs required by all human beings. A job is seen to be necessary in order to fulfil are physiological needs. In the hierarchical table of needs he also placed the need to feel like you belong to part of a group and are working with other individuals. The point behind this theory is that there is a set of needs that each individual requires in order to be productive and these needs can be set in order of how much they are desired by the individuals.
Maslow’s theory is likely to produce good employee/employer relations, this is because Maslow is looking at ways in which to fulfil the different needs of employees therefore management will have to communicate well with employees to ensure that they are kept motivated and their requirements are being met. Each employee is likely to feel more motivated as they are having simple needs met, because management is interacting with them, they are likely to get to know managers well and this will help them develop their relations with them.
Peter F. Drucker
Peter Drucker was a management researcher who looked into what management involves. Drucker had a theory on management that it was an acquired skill that could be taught to someone. Drucker laid out four key skills that a manager must have in order to motivate and monitor their staff. These four key skills were; Planning and setting objectives, Organising – which involves the ability to analyse, describe and authorise, Motivating and communicating, Measuring
Drucker believed that every individual should be given targets to meet and these targets should be reviewed and monitored, this is called management by objectives.
This theory will look into checking up on employee’s progress and giving advice to employees on how to improve their work and give a better output to the organisation. It will also look to reward employees and help motivate them into working harder on tasks that they have been set.
This theory is the most likely from the theories I have looked at to develop good relations with employees. With this theory management will be required to have a lot of interaction with the employees to assist with motivation and to give advice on tasks that have to be carried out. Management will be evaluating the employee’s progression on a regular basis; therefore employees are likely to feel more motivated as management is interacting a lot more with them. Management have this opportunity to liase with the employees and give them advice and encouragement with their set pieces of work.
With each of these theorists’ ideas there are some that are going to work well in certain situations than others. Each of these theories may be applied to different employment situations depending on the type of business and management styles. None of the theories could be classified as working better than others as each of them is likely to work better in a certain situation than others.
- Whether management functions will change depending on the nature of the business.
The nature of an organisation includes factors of the business such as; size, status, purpose, industry, staffing and location. Each of these factors will vary between organisations. This nature of the organisation will have an effect on management functions, managers may have more responsibilities for larger businesses and their functions will change depending on what the business does.
Size
With a larger organisation a manager may be in charge of more employees, with larger business’s it may also be the case that managers are in charge of different sectors within the organisation. With a larger business management may have to look at their planning and lean more towards strategic planning, this is because the bigger organisation will have more long term goals.
Bigger organisations will also require more training and bigger expenses on training. The training a manager performs will also be less specific to bigger organisations as a lot of people will generally be carrying out the same duties within an organisation.
Larger organisations will also require better organising skills from a manager as they will have a lot of employees that they are required to spread the workload between.
Motivating will also be made more difficult in larger organisations as it is harder to interact with each employee as there are many of them. Motivational schemes from management will have to be general to the organisation rather than targeting specific employees.
Status
The status of the business is likely to have an impact on managers planning. Organisations with a well known name will be looking more at strategic planning because they are going to want to be able to stay ahead of competition in the workplace.
Purpose
The purpose of an organisation is likely to have an effect on management functions in that management will have to set work in accordance with the company’s reason for existing. If a company exists to make a profit the managers will look at ways of being cost efficient and ways to increase the revenue of the business, if the organisation is a charity the management may look at ways of advertising and spreading the companies message more effectively.
Industry
Management functions will vary as a result of the industry a company is working in as they will have different competition and will have their options for selling their products limited depending on what industry they are in. If a firm is in the food industry management will have to follow strict health and safety policies to ensure that the food produced is not contaminated.
Staffing
Increased level of staff is going to require more training and accommodation for the staff meaning management will have to use more of the budget to ensure that the demand for staff training can be met. Increased levels of staffing will also mean that management have less room to monitor the staff therefore they may have to adapt methods of monitoring to suit the increased level of staff.
Overall it can be said that there are several factors which will affect the environment that a manager works in, these factors will have to be considered and the management styles adjusted appropriately to ensure that the business runs smoothly.
