LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT STYLES

To manage is “to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct.”

To lead is “influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion”. is an everyday way of acting and thinking that has little to do with a title or formal position in an organization.

Main differences:

Retrieved from: Leadership and Management. Sin Kit I. Class 2011-01

They are different but they complement each other.

Effective leadership + good management = healthy organizations

Behavioral Theories of Managers

• Authoritarian: retains as much power and decision making authority as possible. No consensus.
• Consultative: talks to everyone involved in or affected by a task to get their views and ideas.
• Democratic: participative style, keep employees involve in decision making.
• Laissez faire: provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible.

Type of Leaders:

• Transformational Leaders: inspire followers to transcend their selfinterests. Intellectual stimulus.
• Charismatic Leaders: uses  personal abilities and talents in order to have profound effects on followers.
• Authentic Leader: guided by explicit values that emphasize collective interests.

MANAGEMENT STYLES

Cross-national differences are important when talking about management. Globalization makes us think about strategies that support a competitive advantage in an international level. There are two categories:

1. Convergence: converging to a developed country model or strategic business behavior would become similar. Problem: which model is imitated?
2. Divergence: set of institutions and styles that set internally. They assert that national culture will always be the dominant force. Problem: pressure from domestic and external environment.

Japanese management cares about releationshios between management levels, group loyalty, consensus (so the Germans do), information exchange and corporate values. This follows by a video of Japanese culture:

Retrieved from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXLrU2lB8sE

The Korean management is different. The lifetime employment practice is flexible, top management tends to be authoritarian and family business still being strong. They don’t have “groupism” sense.

National management system is influenced by two items:

•  National culture: collective programming of the mind acquired by growing up in a particular territory. 
• Level of development: determine by the size of the firm and the degree of internationalization.

-       Strong forces for improving managerial operations

-       Challenges from global competitors

Firms could also imitate practices of other successful organizations that have similar needs and procedures.

Do you (or would you want to) work in an autocratic, democratic, or consultative work environment? What might be the advantages and disadvantages of each?

I would prefer to work in a consultative environment because I believe is important, as an employee, to know what is happening around me. This shows confidence and good relationships between managers and employees. An authoritarian model of behavior would diminish responsibilities, and this can be an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. When you have less responsibilities, you will be less rewarded but at the same time you will be carrying less risk. And by working within this kind of environment, you will not be able to express yourself, even for expressing acceptance.

On the other hand, talking about democratic environment, I believe making that much of consensus will cost money and time for the business. Making a decision all employees together will take hundreds of information distributed so they majority can take the appropriate decision. In some cases, as an employee, is better to give power to a board of managers so they can decide what is better for all the organization.

REFERENCES

1. Leadership and Management styles. Sin Kit I. Class 2011-1
2. Lee, Jangho, Thomas W. Roehl & Soonkyoo Cho. 2000. What Makes Management Style Similar and Distinct Across Borders?. Growth, Experience and Culture in Korean and Japanese Firms. 631-52.
3. Gupta, V , Wang, J (2003) Globalization and Convergence-Divergence Debate: Strategic Perspectives for Emerging Markets. Journal of business and economics research. Volumen 1, number 2
4. Video, Japanese culture. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXLrU2lB8sE