9 Types of Management Styles for Impactful Leadership (+Tips)
If you’re a manager, give yourself a pat on the back: Leadership sees you and your dedication. And then, take a moment to breathe: Managing can be hectic and involve a lot of responsibility (all that anxiety isn’t just in your head!). One of the biggest challenges can be finding the management styles that work best for you and your organization. Once you do, though, managing might start to feel like a breeze. Below are nine different types of management styles and some of their benefits and drawbacks.
What is a management style?
A management style is a way a manager works to reach their goals for the company. Your management style comprises how you make decisions, oversee team members, and plan and delegate tasks. You might use different management styles throughout your career rather than sticking with just one.
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9 types of management styles
Whether you’re a new manager or you’ve been at it a while, you’ll likely realize you prefer to run the show a certain way. That could mean following one specific management style or merging a few. Read on to discover nine types of management styles and determine which ones sound right for you.
1 Authoritative
Authoritative managers follow a top-down autocratic management style. If you go the authoritative route, then if you set expectations and your team doesn’t follow them, they could face discipline or other consequences. After you explain a process, you’ll expect your staff to perform it the same way every time without questioning it. You’ll also watch your team closely to ensure that everything is moving along properly.
You’ll closely track your team members to ensure they’re doing their work correctly.
There will be consequences if a team member doesn’t hit their performance marks.
Team members should not question your judgment.
2 Democratic
A democratic management style is basically the opposite of an authoritative approach. This participative management style encourages your team to be a part of the process and give feedback on how things should be done. As a democratic manager, you believe the best way that your team works is in a collaborative, conversational environment. That said, you also give yourself the final say on all decisions.
The democratic management style encourages team members to share their ideas.
You’ll create a collaborative environment that thrives on communication.
You’ll still have the final say in the decision-making process.
3 Consultative
In a consultative environment, the manager wants to hear from every team member before making a final decision. Doing so could mean having a weekly meeting to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions or shooting an email to get everyone’s input. That’s why consultative management is great for specialized fields where your whole team brings unique experience to the table.
Consultative management means taking everyone’s opinions and ideas into consideration.
Consultative management is common in specialized fields.
You’ll see your team members as assets and make their opinions the bedrock of a successful work environment.
4 Laissez-faire
The laissez-faire management style allows your team members to make their own decisions about projects, but they’ll always have you in their corner for backup. You’ll be there to offer guidance, but you’ll rarely tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t do. Think of this type of leadership style as a helping hand. You’ll give your team freedom and remain minimally involved in their projects unless they ask you for guidance.
Laissez-faire managers give their teams more free reign when it comes to making decisions.
You’ll be there to guide your team when they ask for it, but you’ll rarely tell them what to do.
You won’t be heavily involved in projects.
5 Collaborative
If you use a collaborative management style, you encourage your team to discuss any idea that anyone raises. After hearing what your team has to say, you’ll base your decision on a majority vote. This environment gives staff a large say in how things are run, leading to higher employee engagement and a more motivated team.
Collaborative environments are great for keeping employees engaged.
Each idea is fully open for discussion amongst all members.
You’ll make your final decision based on a majority vote.
6 Transformational
As a transformational manager, your main focuses are innovation and employee development. You’ll challenge and gently push your team members daily to help them grow. You’ll constantly motivate your team and encourage them to start new projects – even ones that may feel are out of their wheelhouse.
Transformational management prioritizes long-term employee growth.
You’ll encourage your team to push their boundaries and crush their goals.
You’ll expect your team to take on challenging tasks daily.
7 Coaching
In a coaching management style, your team really is a team – it’s basically a sports metaphor. You want to lead your team to victory and perfect their skills so everyone can reach their full potential. You’ll focus so strongly on long-term growth that short-term mistakes are inevitable and okay. After all, letting your team problem-solve on their own makes you an effective manager – look at you giving everyone the space to do it themselves!
A coaching management style focuses on learning and problem-solving.
You’ll prioritize long-term growth over correcting short-term mistakes.
Professional development is the foundation of the coaching management style.
“Leaders tend to fall directly into advice. If somebody asks for help, leaders say, ‘you should be doing this, or this, or this.’ And I think there are so many more opportunities to coach people through things. It’s to the benefit of everyone. To the leader, in the long term, it saves time, because they can focus on more strategic tasks, and they’re not micromanaging. It is also beneficial for the organization.” – Dr. Julia Milner, Professor of leadership at EDHEC
8 Delegative
As a delegative manager, your main focus is to assign tasks, then give feedback once a task is complete. Your team members will decide how to perform each task. After you look over their work, you’ll offer positive feedback alongside constructive criticism on how they can improve in the future.
Delegative managers assign tasks but don’t oversee the process.
Your team will figure out how to perform tasks on their own.
You’ll provide feedback once tasks are complete.
9 Visionary
In a visionary management style, the manager is someone to look up to. You’ll explain your goals and why they matter to motivate and inspire your staff. Since you’re constantly inspiring your team, they’ll likely stay motivated without a continual check.
Visionary managers give their teams freedom to complete their work but will check in occasionally.
You’ll regularly inspire your team members to reach their goals.
You’ll share your goals and vision with your team.
“A manager works in the business and a leader works on the business. A leader always takes an organization from where it is today to somewhere different, they always try to take the business from where it is today to somewhere different, they have a vision. And they communicate that vision.” – Paul Sloane, Innovation Consultant
What factors affect a management style?
Several internal and external factors affect your management style. You and your organization’s leadership have a say in internal factors: company policies, task priorities, employee skill levels, company culture, employee engagement. As you can probably see from all the above management styles, the way you manage your team pretty clearly affects all these factors and vice versa.
On the contrary, you’ll mostly lack control over external factors, though they’ll still affect the entire staff. These factors include the economy and your competitors, consumers, and suppliers. You may need to oversee things differently depending on how this all changes your bottom line and your clients’ or customers’ needs.
Tips on how to improve your management skills
Even if you feel super confident in your management style, there’s always room for improvement. Read below to discover tips on how you can improve your management skills and bring yourself up to the next level.
Figure out your personal needs
What do you need from your team to succeed? What tools will help you become an effective manager? You may want to write down your answers so you can actually see what will help you and your team be successful.
Figure out your team’s needs
Consider the best environment for your team to thrive. Does your team do well pushing their boundaries or fare better in their comfort zone? Do some team members need an extra push to keep at it? Really take some time to figure out how each team member works and what they need from you to do their best.
Learn more management skills
Just how skilled of a manager are you? Ask your team members how they feel about your performance to find out. You could also ask for anonymous feedback to get especially honest answers – after all, if your staff has some critique, they may not feel comfortable saying it face to face. Take the feedback as learning opportunities and ways to close your skills gap. With enough time and dedication, you’ll become an even better manager.
Set milestones to reach your goal
Milestones are important steps along the way to a big goal. For example, if you’re managing a year-long project, what will you do along the way to help your team succeed? A milestone could be to have 10 design meetings in the first quarter to help oversee everyone’s ideas. Another one would be to approve a draft design, and so on until you reach the finish line. Setting SMART goals is a great way to accomplish this and keep your team on track.
Always track your progress
Part of your responsibilities as a manager is to track a team member’s progress, but don’t forget to track yours, too. Consider setting up meetings with your teams or regularly checking in to see which techniques are receptive. For example, with visionary management, you may notice that your team isn’t productive enough given how much you’re trying to inspire them. In that case, you may want to see what you can improve to help meet your management goals.
Consider additional management training
If you’re trying to be the best possible manager, it never hurts to sit down for some formal classes. You could also just shadow another manager for a bit. In both cases, you’ll likely see new management ideas might work for you and other things you think would miss the mark. Either way, you’ll walk away a better manager.
Ask for feedback (again)
The only way you’ll know if you’re managing your team well is to ask them. On small teams, you can schedule a meeting with each team member to get their thoughts and hear what they think could change. On larger teams, feedback tools are probably your go-to. And on that front, a good meeting tool can really help.
Set your management goals – and get feedback
Now that you’re familiar with several different management styles and tips, you’re ready to take the next steps to reach your goals. To set yourself up for success, you’ll need a space dedicated to writing down your goals and asking for feedback. With Fellow, you can set objectives, seek peer feedback, and do so much more. You’ll reach your management goals in no time.
13 Different Management Styles and When to Use Them
Ask Richard Yu, a chief product officer for workplace productivity platform company Formstack, about his management style and he’ll tell you about how he’s used all three of the major management styles over the course of his career.
An autocratic style, where a manager makes unilateral decisions, worked best in the manufacturing industry which involved repetitive tasks and prescribed processes. But in the tech industry, where innovation is key to a company’s growth, a democratic style that solicits employees’ input before a final decision is reached is a far more effective approach, as is a laissez-faire management style where employees are empowered to make decisions on their own and chart the course of direction and action.
“I tend to think of management styles as a continuum or a spectrum that is driven by a lot of contexts,” Yu said. “These contexts can be my team, the organization, the tasks that need to be done, or tasks at hand.”
Management Styles Autocratic
Authoritative
Persuasive
Paternalistic
Democratic
Consultative
Participative
Collaborative
Transformational
Coaching
Laissez-faire
Delegative
Visionary
Other tech executives from game platform company Roblox to autonomous vehicle company Cruise, as well as professors from Yale University’s school of management to the University of San Diego, agree that management styles are vast and varied, and adopting one style to use all the time does not work all the time.
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What Is a Management Style?
Simply put, a management style encompasses the way team leaders, managers and executives interact with their teams and departments while setting goals, making decisions and delegating the work.
But it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation, all the time.
“There are some common qualities of what a good leader does, but it depends on what the situation is,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of leadership programs and a professor at the Yale School of Management.
Management style also differs from leadership style, Mohamed “Mo” Elshenawy, executive vice president of engineering at Cruise, told Built In.
“Every style may make sense based on not only the situation and the people you are leading but also depending on the lifecycle of the company, industry, or product itself that you are working with,”
Management is a position a person holds and because of that role they can leverage it to get action from their team versus a leader, even if they are an individual contributor, can have a huge influence on people and entice them to follow their vision.
He added another way to look at management styles is to question the “why” behind the style or the motivation behind the style, rather than the style itself when determining the best approach to take.
“Every style may make sense based on not only the situation and the people you are leading but also depending on the lifecycle of the company, industry, or product itself that you are working with,” Elshenawy added.
13 Management Styles to Try
Three broad management styles — autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire — and their 10 sub-categories give managers a number of options on how to approach situations, according to a report from learning technology company Valamis. The question is when is the best time to use each style.
Leadership Styles Autocratic Democratic Laissez-Faire. | Video: Communication Coach Alex Lyon
Autocratic
Definition: Managers make unilateral decisions without seeking employee input and discourage unsolicited ideas and discussions. Within the authoritative style there are the subcategories: Authoritative, paternalistic, and persuasive.
An autocratic management style, at first blush, may initially initiate a response of “no way” from managers, but under some circumstances, it may be the right management style to use, said Jennifer Mueller, associate professor of management at the University of San Diego.
“A big ‘a-ha’ for a lot of my students is that an autocratic style can save your time. It helps coordinate people quickly and you can start to see the benefits of it right away,” Mueller said, adding, “It can also make some employees feel more comfortable and confident when a leader comes in and says, ‘okay, this is what we’re going to do.’”
Safety situations where there is a time pressure especially call for an autocratic management style, she noted.
In other cases, you may be facing a situation where you are hired to lead and manage a turnaround of a highly dysfunctional or poorly operating business unit and an autocratic style is needed, said Elshenawy.
“Some aspects of an autocratic leadership style make sense, like in this case setting clear expectations and coming into the frontline to push for the work to get done until you get the right leaders in place,” he added.
Authoritative
Definition: Employees are micro-managed and managers also dole out punishment for failure to follow their unilateral decisions.
Although an authoritative management style can save time in executing tasks since no discussion is entertained in making decisions, over the long haul it may hurt your ability to grow the company.
“An authority management style doesn’t work if you want to scale the organization because people won’t be happy when you do that and you will end up losing top talent,” Philippe Clavel, senior director of engineering at Roblox, told Built In.
Priyanka Carr, chief operating officer at Momentive, also avoids using an autocratic management style because it limits learning opportunities, and reduces intrinsic motivation and creativity.
Paternalistic
Definition: Unilateral decisions are explained and presented in the best interest of employees, who are characterized as “family” members.
Although a manager may truly have the employees’ best interest at heart when they use this management style, it could backfire on them because it may come across as condescending and also lead to a blurring of the lines between work time and family time, Yu said.
Persuasive
Definition: Managers use persuasion to convince employees that their unilateral decision is the best one to follow.
A persuasive management style is what Yu adopted when he worked at a manufacturing company years ago. He found it useful when working with newer or junior team members who were looking for guidance.
“I’m not a fan of being authoritative and just telling people what to do, so I tend to lean towards a persuasive management style versus authoritative,” he said, in reference to the management style he used at a manufacturing plant but no longer uses in the tech industry.
Democratic
Definition: Input is solicited but managers still make the final decision. Within the democratic style, there are the subcategories: Consultative, participative, collaborative and transformational.
Both Yu and other tech executives said a democratic or laissez-faire management style is the best approach for the tech industry and the ones that they use with their direct reports.
“A democratic leadership style is something that’s misunderstood because it doesn’t mean you’re building decisions by consensus. It means you’re really considering the strength and input from everyone else who you’re working with,” Elshenawy said, adding that can also help in getting by in from those involved in the discussions.
Consultative
Definition: Information is solicited, then the manager mulls it over by themselves before making a decision.
Elon Musk and the late Steve Jobs use a consultative management style, soliciting ideas from others and then melding them into actionable ideas.
“They would act like an orchestra conductor, going from one group to another but synthesizing it for themselves,” Sonnenfeld told Built In. This allows them to reap the benefits of gathering the wisdom of others yet offers the speed in decision making.
Steve Jobs talks about managing people. | Video: ragni
Participative
Definition: Employees play an active role in the discussion and decision-making process before a final decision is made by the managers.
A participative management style is effective during the early formation of strategies at an organization, such as which are the top priorities to what steps should be taken to achieve them, Yu said.
“I’m a big believer in having alignment and consensus as much as possible and think it’s really important to have everybody participate in helping to set priorities appropriately,” he added.
Atish Das Sarma, head of growth engineering at makers platform company Patreon, uses a participative management style among those in his toolkit. This management style gives participants a chance to be heard and weigh in on the decision-making process to a certain degree.
Patreon, for example, frequently runs experiments to accelerate growth for creators on its platform.
“We have a democratic approach, but then we have the clear decision makers, me and the chief product officer, move ahead with a plan, even if it leads to some disagreement on the teams,” Das Sarma said.
Collaborative
Definition: A decision is made based on the majority view of the group after it holds discussions.
Clavel learned this important management style even before becoming a manager and having the authority to make final decisions.
As a senior engineer at a wireless entertainment company, the CTO asked Clavel to gain consensus from a team of employees on how to launch Guitar Hero on mobile. He learned to listen to all arguments, aggregate the information and represent it to the group. If tempers flared, he would gently change the topic noting it would be discussed the following day. This allowed participants to digest the information overnight before resuming the conversation, all the while keeping an eye on the calendar for when the company needed to launch the product.
“You need to give time for people to acknowledge there is a conflict and then eventually guide people to a solution that makes sense for everybody. This way, people feel heard,” Clavel said.
A collaborative management style, however, could also have limits when working with a remote workforce, Sonnenfeld said.
“There are a lot of things you can do to try to pierce the veil, like using Zoom or WebEx, but some things are easier to do in person when you want to have a casual conversation on the side as part of your collaboration,” he added.
Transformational
Definition: Managers push employees past their comfort zone to achieve new ideas, processes, or goals.
That’s what Das Sarma did when head of Apple’s cloud machine learning. He used a transformational management style among his management tools.
Half of his team were machine learning engineers, the other half were data scientists. In order to maximize the impact on Apple, he would tell the ML engineers and data scientists to consider the challenges that software engineers faced and try to walk in the shoes of a software engineer.
“I was also very upfront when hiring individuals that through the course of their work they would have to work on things that would be outside their comfort zone and, in most cases, they broadened their skillset and had a bigger impact,” Das Sarma said. “Half of them actually started enjoying the other side more.”
Coaching
Definition: Employee growth and development is a top priority for managers.
Coaching is one of the management styles Clavel uses.
“You do this because it’s the only way to scale up your team and organization,” he said.
When Clavel joined Roblox, the team was small and he realized he could not hire the 40 people he needed on his own within an 18-month period. So, he coached his managers on what to look for in each job candidate, he added. Today, Roblox’s engineering team has grown by hundreds of people over the past few years.
Laissez-faire
Definition: Managers give control of decision-making and problem-solving to employees. Within the laissez-faire style there are the subcategories: Delegative and visionary.
A laissez-faire management style makes sense when you’re working with a group of people who do not have a lot of interdependence among themselves, Sonnenfeld said, pointing to the entertainment and technology industries and their heavy use of subcontractors as an example.
An employee’s skills and ability will also dictate whether a manager can take a laissez-faire management style with that employee, Elshenawy said.
Delegative
Definition: The manager assigns a task and reviews it at the end to provide feedback, allowing the employee to pursue the task as they see fit.
Yu, for example, favors a delegative style once his team is high functioning, he said.
“I’m a fan of empowering them to make their own decisions and take the actions they feel are needed,” Yu said. “Giving them a lot of empowerment helps build a lot of trust.”
Although a situation may call for a delegative management style, Elshenawy offers some words of caution.
“You should never be psychologically removed from the picture,” he said.
Indeed. That could also cost you your job. If you’re hands off and not providing enough value to your direct reports, they may begin to resent you.
“People resent someone who’s not working and adding value, especially if they are in a supervisory role,” Sonnenfeld said. “They’ll start wondering why they have you in a corner suite that could be used as a meeting room or lunchroom.”
Visionary
Definition: The manager inspires employees to move toward the goal they outline but leaves it up to the employees to execute the vision.
A visionary management style can sometimes be teamed with a less desirable management practice, Yu warned.
“Visionary managers and leaders can inspire others with their big vision, but may be short on details,” Yu said. “So, on the flip side, they may also be authoritative in terms of telling you how to deliver on their vision.”
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Management Styles to Always Avoid
Threatening behavior is a management style that should be avoided at all costs, tech executives and management professors said.
“Dishonorable and threatening behavior is never a good management style,” Sonnenfeld said. He added threatening behavior would drive employees to be compliant to avoid punishment and potentially prompt them to seek opportunities to throw you out.
A cable company CEO, for example, believed throwing trash cans in the office or hitting his fist against the wall to display his frustration over the company’s poor performance was acceptable, Sonnenfeld said. This CEO also believed making examples out of people for the company’s poor performance would prompt them to try harder at work. Eventually, he was terminated after yelling at one of the company’s superstars, who filed a lawsuit against him.
Humiliation is another ineffective management style, career experts and executives said. In the workplace, this might look like publicly silencing an employee.
“You should never consider silencing an employee or being dismissive,” Das Sarma said. Such a move, according to career experts, could prompt that employee —as well as others — to hold back on contributing to future discussions and sharing their ideas.
“If you’re always painting a really rosy picture, a smart team at some point will start losing faith in it. But if you don’t paint an optimistic future and say you can’t do anything about it, then you’re not an inspiring team leader.”
One manager at a major financial institution would publicly point out when an employee was not prepared for a meeting they were attending, hoping it would prompt others to always come prepared to meetings, Sonnenfeld said.
“She didn’t realize it was coming across that she was humiliating them until someone mentioned it,” he said. “So, instead, she now reschedules the meeting if someone gives her a cue that they won’t be prepared.”
Management styles that exude overly optimistic forecasts that border on white lies should also be avoided at all costs. There’s a delicate balance between painting an optimistic scenario to inspire the team and providing a realistic assessment of what you are trying to achieve, Das Sarma said.
“If you’re always painting a really rosy picture, a smart team at some point will start losing faith in it. But if you don’t paint an optimistic future and say you can’t do anything about it, then you’re not an inspiring team leader,” he added.
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The Future of Management
Self-organizing teams and autonomous teams will increasingly become the future and that will force supervisors to adapt management styles that do away with a siloed approach where you are only managing your team, said Yu.
Teams will come together on their own to work on projects that may drive a larger initiative or a piece of strategy. The managers of these teams should be comfortable with this approach rather than selecting specific employees to lead the project or leading it themselves.
A widespread shift to remote work is promoting managers to adopt new management styles or ramp up aspects of their existing style, tech executives said.
For Clavel, he is making a proactive effort to expand the inclusiveness he uses in his management style.
“It’s hard when you have a hybrid office. It forces you to find ways to be more inclusive of remote workers, much more than existed before,” said Clavel. “You need to be very cognizant that it’s easy to exclude some people and make sure everyone is working together.”
Additionally, managers need to remember that remote workers are not “always” available and should avoid reaching out to them during off-hours, he added.
“It’s more important than ever before to articulate vision, set priorities, and build trust as employees become increasingly hybrid or remote.”
Remote work has expanded the number of opportunities where employees can work since they no longer have to be tied to an employer located in the city where they live. As a result, that means managers need to be more willing to work with their employees to retain them, Yu said.
He added he is reaching out more to remote workers to understand what is happening in their lives, not just with work. That understanding of their personal life has increased his compassion as a manager, he said.
“I want to understand what is happening in their personal lives so I can offer support,” Yu said. “I now find myself giving everyone more benefit of the doubt when someone is late for a meeting or has to cut out early or miss a meeting to pick up a child from daycare or drop someone off at school.”
The increase in a remote workforce is likely to lead to other changes in management styles in the future — far after the pandemic subsides, tech executives said.
That view is shared by Carr.
“It’s more important than ever before to articulate vision, set priorities, and build trust as employees become increasingly hybrid or remote,” she said. “People have a lot more choice in how they work, where they work and who they choose to work with. Managers need to adapt. The best leaders create other leaders, invest in building teams, and continually optimize how they lead those teams to success.”
Management style
Methods of maintaining order in a work environment
Management consists of the planning, prioritizing, and organizing work efforts to accomplish objectives within a business organization.[1] A management style is the particular way managers go about accomplishing these objectives. It encompasses the way they make decisions, how they plan and organize work, and how they exercise authority.[2]
Management styles varies by company, level of management, and even from person to person. A good manager is one that can adjust their management style to suit different environments and employees. An individual’s management style is shaped by many different factors including internal and external business environments, and how one views the role of work in the lives of employees.[1]
Factors that shape the management style [ edit ]
Internal factors [ edit ]
Internal company factors that determine a management style include, but are not limited to, policies, priorities, corporate culture, staff skill levels, motivation and management structures.[1][2]
In order to be effective, a manager’s style and outlook must fit into the business's organizational culture. Their style must adhere to the policies and procedures set forth by the organization, and they must be able to achieve company objectives. They are responsible for controlling an effective work team and must uphold organizational beliefs within that team. A manager who cannot do this would likely be deemed ineffective and be removed from the position.[2]
Staff skill levels and motivation greatly affect management styles as it is necessary for a manager to accomplish objectives while maintaining a content and effective work team. Less skilled or motivated employees would require a style that is more controlling and fosters consistent supervision to ensure productivity. Highly motivated or skilled employees require less supervision and direction as they are typically more technically skilled than management and have the ability, and desire, to make more autonomous decisions. These employees would benefit from a management style that is less controlling or hands-off.[1]
Hierarchical management structures call for decision to be made solely by upper management, and within the scope of a manager’s position in the hierarchy. These types of organizations require more controlling management styles in order to meet objectives and get things done as specified. Flatter structures with more decentralized decision-making benefit from management styles that encourage team communication and employee’s contribution with regard to decision-making.
External factors [ edit ]
External factors affecting management styles are those that are outside of the control of the organization. These include, but are not limited to consumers, suppliers, competitors, the economy, and the law.[1]
Some examples of these factors are a competitor who offers a more autonomous environment for skilled employees and control the job pool; the economy for a specific manufactured good results in a spike in demand causing a production crisis; the laws for a specific industry change and require employees who have extensive knowledge and certification causing the company employees talent and motivation to change.
Theory X and Theory Y [ edit ]
Douglas McGregor introduced Theory X and Theory Y in 1957.[3] This psychological concept proposed that how one viewed human relationships to those of an enterprise determined their style of management.
Theory X proposes that people inherently lack the motivation and desire for responsibility and need to be closely supervised, directed, and tightly controlled in order to achieve team objectives.[3] Without it, workers may become unwilling to work. This is considered the more conventional theory and results in management styles that have high degrees of control over employees.
Theory Y conversely suggests that it is human nature to be motivated by objectives and gain satisfaction through the completion of work.[2] Those who believe in Theory Y believe that it is the responsibility of management to foster environments where employees can develop potential and utilize their skills to achieve objectives.[3] This perspective leads to management styles that give the workers more decision making control and provide less supervision.
Types of management styles [ edit ]
All management styles can be categorized by three major types: Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire, with Autocratic being the most controlling and Laissez-Faire being the least controlling.[citation needed]
Autocratic [ edit ]
Autocratic management is the most controlling of the management styles. Variations of this style are authoritative, persuasive, and paternalistic. Autocratic managers make all of the decisions in the workplace. Communication with this type of management is one way, top-down to the employees. Employee ideas and contributions are not encouraged or considered necessary.[4] Roles and tasks are clearly defined, and workers are expected to follow these directions without question while being consistently checked and supervised.[1]
This type of style is particularly useful in organizations with hierarchical structures where management makes all of the decisions based on positioning in the hierarchy. Employees that benefit from this style of management include those who are new, unskilled, or unmotivated, as they need the supervision and clear direction. Managers can benefit greatly from using this style in times of crisis or serious time constraints.[5]
The advantages of the autocratic management style are little uncertainty, clearly defined roles and expectations for employees, and the speed of decision-making.[1] All decisions are made by the manager and employees are expected to be compliant leaving little room for variation or confusion. Decision-making speed is ideal and is not slowed by conflicting thought or agendas.
Disadvantages include lack of staff input with ideas that are not encouraged or shared. This can lead to job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and employee turnover. Because managers make all of the decisions, the employees are not inclined to act autonomously and may become too dependent on the manager. Not all employees want or need supervision, and as a result can become resentful and unhappy.[5] Too many dissatisfied employees and the separation of power with an autocratic management style can lead to an ‘us vs them’ mentality.[1]
Authoritative style [ edit ]
With this management style, there is little trust or confidence in employees. This manager dictates orders to employees and expects that they do exactly as required. These employees are unskilled. This requires constant teaching and coaching of the staff as well as consistent supervision.[2][5]
Persuasive style [ edit ]
Using this management style, the manager still makes all decisions for employees but then convinces employees that these decisions were made in the best interest of the team. The only real difference here is that it can establish a higher level of trust between management and staff.[1]
Paternalistic or Exploitative/Authoritative style [ edit ]
The manager still makes all of the decisions in this style of management and treats the employees in a condescending or paternalistic way.[2] The decisions are made in the best interest of the employees and the manager explains these decisions and the importance of them to the employees. These employees may feel well taken care of and looked after by the paternalistic manager but may become resentful of not being taken seriously. This style breeds highly dependent employees.[6]
Democratic [ edit ]
The democratic management style involves managers reaching decisions with the input of the employees but being responsible for making the final decision.[4] There are many variations of this style of management including consultative, participative, and collaborative styles. Employee ideas and contributions are encouraged, but not necessary. Communication is both top-down and bottom-up and makes for a cohesive team.
This type of style is versatile with the advantages of having more diverse perspectives involved in decision making. As employees are being taken into account before the manager makes decisions, the employees feel valued which increases motivation and productivity.
Disadvantages of the democratic management style are the time it takes to make a decision due to the gathering of ideas and opinions. There is also the potential conflict of different viewpoints playing a role in the decision making and as a result, employees can feel less valued if their input is not taken, leading to decreased morale and productivity.[1]
Consultative style [ edit ]
With this management style, trust and confidence is placed in the employees and management actively seeks out their opinions.[2]
Participative style [ edit ]
Similar to consultative, management trusts the employees, but trusts them completely and not only seeks out their opinions and ideas, but they act on them.[2] They work together to make decisions as a group and the staff is highly involved. As a result, employees feel valued and show increased motivation and productivity. However, a drawback to this style is that some employees do not want to be involved in decision making and can come to resent a manager with this style.[1]
Collaborative style [ edit ]
Managers with the collaborative style communicated extensively with employees and make decisions by the majority. The manager believes that involving everyone and making the team take ownership will result in the best decisions made. The main disadvantage of this style is that it is time-consuming, and sometimes the majority decision is not the best decision for the business entity, in which case, the manager should take control of the final choice.[6]
The laissez-faire management style involves little or no interference from management. The staff do not need supervision and are highly skilled which allows management to take the hand’s off approach and leave the problem solving, and decision making to the staff.[1] Variations of this style include the delegative style and what is referred to as bossless environments or self-managed teams.[7]
This type of style works best in organizations with flatter decentralized management. Typically, the staff is highly skilled, more so than the management, and is trusted with setting the bar for innovation and setting the objectives.[1]
The advantages of the Laissez faire are increased innovation and creativity through the autonomy of expert staff. Some examples of this type of employee are teachers, creatives, and designers.[4]
Disadvantages include the risk of low productivity by unsupervised staff, loss of direction due to the hands-off style of management.[1]
Delegative style [ edit ]
A delegative management style allows employees to take full responsibility of their work areas. The manager assigns tasks with little or no direction and expects the staff to achieve results of their own accord. The manager retains responsibility for meeting objectives. The major drawbacks of this style are lack of uniformity among team members and uncoordinated efforts toward productivity. Also because little direction and guidance is given the team can lack direction and focus.[5]
Bossless or self-managed teams [ edit ]
Although self managed teams (SMT) and bossless environments are not management styles, they are a style of management chosen by an organization. Like the Laissez-Faire management style, employees in these environments are highly skilled and motivated, but take it a step further as they are also highly educated, self directed, and know a great deal more about the work than management. SMT’s can report directly to directors or can have managers who follow the delegative, or participative style,[7] but these teams require more leadership than management to remain productive.
Management by walking around (MBWA) [ edit ]
Management by walking around is not an actual management style, it is more of a practice, but still it is labeled as such. Managers who practice MBWA place importance on rich levels of interpersonal communication. They believe that managers have a tendency to become separated from staff and should focus efforts on understanding employees’ work and being visible and accessible. Managers walk around the premises checking with employees and on the status of ongoing projects.[8] This practice can be helpful in maintaining contact with employees and offering guidance as well as mitigating problems, however MBWA may also lower productivity levels by distracting employees.
See also [ edit ]