2. Write a report.

Unit 12

Management styles

Business brief

Traditionally, the model for leadership in business has been the army. Managers and army officers give orders, and their subordinates carry them out. Managers, like army officers, may be sent on leadership courses to develop their leadership skills. But some would say that leaders are born, not made, and no amount of training can change this. The greatest leaders have charisma, a powerful, attractive quality that makes other people admire them and want to follow them. A leader like this may be seen as a visionary. Leaders are often described as having drive, dynamism and energy to inspire the people under them, and we recognise these qualities in many famous business and political leaders. The leadership style of a company's boss can influence the management styles of all the managers in the organisation.

In some Asian cultures, there is management by consensus: decisions are not imposed from above in a top-down approach, but arrived at in a process ofconsultation, asking all employees to contribute to decision making, and many western companies have tried to adopt these ideas. Some commentators say that women will become more important as managers, because they have the power to build consensus in a way that the traditional authoritarian male manager does not.

One recent development in consensual management has been coaching and mentoring. Future senior managers are 'groomed' by existing managers, in regular one-to-one sessions, where they discuss the skills and qualities required in their particular organisational culture.

Another recent trend has been to encourage employees to use their own initiative: the right to take decisions and act on their own without asking managers first. This is empowerment. Decision making becomes more decentralised and less bureaucratic, less dependent on managers and complex formal management systems. This has often been necessary where the number of management levels is reduced. This is related to the ability of managers to delegate, to give other people responsibility for work rather than doing it all themselves. Of course, with empowerment and delegation, the problem is keeping control of your operations, and keeping the operations profitable and on course. This is one of the key issues of modern management style.

Empowerment is related to the wider issue of company ownership. Managers and employees increasingly have shares in the firms they work for. This of course makes them more motivated and committed to the firm, and encourages new patterns of more responsible behaviour.

PS: How to arrange a meeting see Unit 1.

Action minutes

Example of the action minutes:

Minutes of the Management Committee Meeting

Date: 7 April

Venue: Building B Room 10-213

Participants: Jim Scarfield, Andrea Hevitsun, Robbie

Gibson, Paul Keown. Apologies:Tony Barton

Point	Discussion	Action
1. Management pay review	We agreed changes to the management pay review. AH will include these when the review is presented at the next meeting of the finance committee.	AH 26 April
2. Sales projections next quarter	We agreed that we need to produce better sales figures for the next quarter after the poor results so far this year. JS and PK will spend the next month personally visiting our top clients to check the reasons for the business downturn.	JS and PK
3. Recruitment and capital expenditure	We decided not to do any recruiting over the next quarter. However, we will buy the new accounting software to increase our efficiency in invoicing customers, if we can get a bigger discount from the software supplier.	RG
4. Company bonus scheme	Because of the present financial situation a bonus scheme can only work if it is linked to productivity. AH will review different possibilities for discussion with the finance committee, and report to us at the next meeting.	AH 3 May

Next meeting: 3 May 14.00

Venue: Building B Room 10-213

Some rulers for writing action minutes:

1. Always put the title, date, time and venue (place) of the meeting, plus the names of the participants.

2. The minutes can be an important record of what was really discussed at a meeting, so it is important to make sure that the summary of each point is as accurate as possible.

3. Initials are used to refer to participants.

4. The ‘action’ column is important for showing who is supposed to do what by when.

5. If you are a participant at a meeting always make sure you check the minutes when they have been written up. If you think something has not been accurately reported then have it corrected.

Tasks and exercises: