Participative Management versus Authoritarian Management Essay

Participative Management versus Authoritarian Management - Essay Example Management style is characterised by the degree of empowerment of team members, his focusing either on people or tasks, etc. The correct and appropriate management style is able to yield very good results. Management style is in many aspects the product of individual personal traits of the manager; however this does not mean there are no other components influencing it. These components constitute subjective part of the management style, yet it always has a common objective basis. Objectively, whichever management style is chosen by the manager, this choice is determined by the goal, the team and the situation. A lot of management theories have been developed during the decades of studying the very phenomenon of managing people. Some of these theories singled out, among others, authoritative and participative management styles which were often contrasted to each other. For example, Likert’s System 4 theory of management named four broad management styles which were â€Å"forming a continuum, with autocratic, task-centered leadership at one end and democratic, participative, employee-centered at the other†. (Morris&Pavett 1992, 169) W. Schneider identified four types of orgnisational cultures (control, collaboration, competence, and cultivation) (cited from: Schulz, J.W., Hauck, L.C.& Hauck, R.M. 2001, 2), and each of them presupposes the prevalence of particular management style. Authoritative managers are characteristic for control cultures with their order, predictability and conservatism and participative managers often can be found in the companies with collaboration culture that treasure the quality of relationships and aim to build highly cohesive teams with hight participation in running the company. Forecasting a manager’s effectiveness is much more difficult than e.g. determining personal traits that are the most characteristic for the leaders. Situational factors were eventually taken into