The Scales of Management

Introduction

Today, managers have a variety of factors that will affect the different management styles

available to them. The theorist’s Tannenbaum ?and Schmidt set a continuum for managers,

and these are practised ?today. The factors mentioned can be external as well as internal.

?External factors could include things like changes to law, changes to ?the economy,

environmental disasters or negative publicity. These ?are in most cases things the

organisation can not control.

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Often mangers assess external threats by means of the PEST analysis. ?Political factors,

Economic Factors, Social factors and Technological ?factors. The Tannenbaum and Schmidt

continuum has styles which ?managers need to demonstrate during these various factors.

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There are four styles used, the Participating, Selling, Delegating and ?Telling styles. The

model from Tannenbaum and Schmidt is a simple ?way of showing the relationship between

the level of freedom a ?manager chooses to give to a team, and the level of authority used by

?the manager. In normal business as usual the team’s freedom ?increases, so the managers

authority decreases. This is a positive way ?for both teams and managers to develop.

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?However, in certain circumstances this level of freedom can all ?change. For example, when

the MIRAS tax-relief was abolished ?the housing market was adversely affected and

economically ?businesses related to the building industry and market were also

?effected. During this period many managers were faced with hard direct decisions. In the

model of Tannenbaum and Schmidt the ?managers would have just had to ‘decide and

announce’ that there ?would be job cuts for example in the ‘bathroom distribution’

company. There would have been no discussion or freedom to choose. Survival of the

business would have depended on those type of decisions and styles used. However,

strategically the manager may ?have to ‘sell the decision’ to those remaining in the company,

to show ?that he has concern for the team and their importance in getting

?through this period. Maybe to keep morale and motivation rolling on during the economic

depression period he may have to ‘present ideas ?and invite questions. If the economic

depression period starts to lift and trading starts to improve the may need to recruit staff

?again, or simply restructure towards sales and not servicing. He thus ?may ‘present a

provisional decision and invites discussion about it’.

It maybe that the staff presently could cope but may need to take on another role. If the

economic situation lightens and a stable increase is improving and the workload is now

being effected, the manager ‘decide and announce the decision’ to take on additional staff.

Then he may call in the staff and ‘sells’ the decision to the team. Maybe there’s potential to

be gained through a competitor ceasing trading. There maybe another change in the roles

and posts within the team. With this in mind the manager may ‘present the decision with

?background ideas and invites questions. This way he can lead his team to where he wants

them to go, and they too are encouraged by their input to the situation. Bearing in mind the

adverse effect economics has on people’s frame of mind the manager will have to show

some consideration to this depression period until such times pass. If now, for some time

steady increase and sustained growth has risen and more and more staff have been recruited

again to cope with demand. Expansion and additional arms to the business have developed

through holes in the market through survival of the depression period the manager will have

needed to look to develop his team. He would have had to ‘present the problem to the team,

get suggestions, then make decisions. Key people to the team working would need

identifying. They may need to be developed. the manager may take these aside and through

delegation ’define the parameters and ask them to decide’ on who will take on what role or

‘champion’ a certain project. As the key team players grow in their roles or projects the

manager will use it to ‘allow the team to identify the problem, develop the options and

?decide on the action, within the manager’s received limits.?This limit may mean the amount

of money they are allowed to spend up to. ?It may mean the amount of jurisdiction they have

at the office.

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?Another factor could be a technological one, which may ?require a rethink of how to carry

on doing business. For example?e-commerce a relatively new and revolutionary way of

operating a business could involve a whole new arm to the business. It could create an

export side to the business never recognised before. The new rethink may not mean an

initial decision and announcement. It may now mean that in the model a manager will

‘present an idea and invites questions. While the model delegates freedom to a group,

the principle of being able to apply different levels of delegation closely relate to the ‘seven

levels of delegation’. As a manager, one of the responsibilities is to develop your team. You

should delegate and ask a team to make it own decisions to varying degrees according to

their abilities. There is a rising scale of levels of delegated freedom that you can use when

working with your team.?Over a period the team should have developed to working through

to the other end of the model’s scale. At a point you should also aim to have developed one

or a number of potential successors from your team to take over from you. This process can

take a year or two or even longer and requires patience. Awareness of how your team

develops and responds is paramount to success. Although the team is given freedom to learn

and develop the manager will always take full responsibility and accountability for any

problems during this time. Delegating assignments to teams requires a mature manager as

when everything goes well the team ?take the credit and when it goes wrong the manager

takes the blame.

?This is fair as the manager makes the judgement of any given situation, including risks and

level of freedom given. With this attitude and philosophy in mind whilst carrying out this

continuum will help strengthen it. The seven levels of delegation will start off ?with, ‘The

Manager decides and announces the decision’. The manager reviews options in light of

aims, issues, priorities, timescale etc, then decides the action and informs the team of the

decision. The manager will probably have considered how the team will react, but?the team

do not play a part in the making of the decision. The team may even feel that they were not

even consulted at all. This is seen by the team as a task-based decision.?

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?The second is ‘the manager decides and then ‘sells’ the decision to the team’. The manager

‘sells’ the idea by explaining how the team will benefit in a positive way from his decision.

In this way the manager is seen by the team as concerned for them and their importance.?The

third stage is where ‘the manager presents the decision and with background ideas invite

questions’. The manager will present a ?decision to the team although having in the

background where to led the team in the decision. The team will ask questions and discuss

?with the manager the meaning behind the decision therefore helping them understand and

accept the decision more easily.

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References

Richard, L. Daft (2003) …………….Sixth Edition Management: Vanderbilt University: Thomson South Western.

?Fulop Linstead (1992) ……………...’Bureaucracy and the modern manager’, in Fulop, L with Frith, F and Hayward, H. Management for Australian Business: A Critical Text, Mebourne: Macmillan.

?Tannebaum, R and Schimdt, W.H (1958)….How To Choose A Leadership Pattern, Harvard Business School Publishing Corp.

?Armstrong, M (1994)…………………………’Improving??Organisational Effectiveness’, Kogan Page Limited, London

?Puska, P, et al (1985)………………………………..’The Communication-Based Strategy to prevent Coronary Heart Disease,’ Annual Review of Public Health 6: 147-93.