O Organising Managers Set Tasks example essay topic

The Functions of management Henri Fayal - first person to come up with a list of functions or elements of management Planning - setting objectives and also strategies, policies, programmes and procedures for achieving them. o Organising - managers set tasks which need to be preformed if the business wants to achieve its objectives. o Commanding - this involves giving instructions to subordinates to carry out tasks. The manager has the authority to make decisions. o Co-ordina ting - this is the bringing together of the activities of people within the business. o Controlling - managers measure and correct the activities of individuals and groups, to make sure that their performance fits in with plans. The management process Peter Drucker - grouped the operations of management into five categories o Setting objectives for the organisation o Job measurement - assessing whether the business has met its objective so Organising the work Motivating employee so Developing people - the management should bring out the best in people Four styles of management Autocratic - orders come form the top, and no leeway is allowed Democratic - less centralised, give space for initiative Laissez faire - arises from over worked or lazy management, staff is left to their own devices Paternalistic - decision making is still centralised but a noticeable attention and care for staffMcGregor's Theory X & Y Douglas McGregor undertook a survey of managers in the USA and identified two styles of management, which he called Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X managers tend to distrust their subordinates; they believe employees do not enjoy their work and that need to be controlled. Theory X is about the views managers have on their workforce. Theory Y managers believe that employees do enjoy their work and they want to contribute ideas and effort. Theory Y manager is more likely to involve employees in decisions Why do leader adopt different styles?

Fiedler - argued that 'it is easier to change someone's role or power, or to modify the job he has to do, than to change his leadership style'. He found that it is difficult for people to change their leadership styles - an autocrat will always lead in n autocratic style. Fiedler suggested that a business should attempt what he called leadership match - to find a leader to fit the situation. Leader can either be task orientated or relationship orientated Hersey and Blanchard - argued that a leader's strategy should not only take account of the situation, but also the maturity of those who are led.

A leader will have task behaviour or relationship behaviour. Task behaviour is the extent to which the leader has to organise what a subordinate should do. Relationship behaviour describes how much support is needed and how close personal contact is. Together these will decide which of the following leadership styles will be use do Delegating leadership - where a leader allows subordinates to solve a problem Participating leadership - where a leader and subordinates work on a problem together Selling leadership - where a leader persuades others of the benefits of an idea Telling leadership - where a leader tells others exactly what to do Weight and Taylor - argued that theories which concentrate on the situation or maturity of those led ignore how skilfully leadership is carried out. They produced the following checklist: o What is the problem? o Is it serious enough to spend time on? o What reasons may there be for the problem? o Choosing a solution and evaluating if it is the most effective one Evaluation of the leaders performance.