Playing God

Management style can affect employee motivation so it is important to get things right. There are important organisational and structural variables to consider. Communications relationships, division of labour, functional specialisms, scalar chain, unified and functional authority relationships, span and control in flat or tall structures, co-ordination, and delegation are some of them. Weber called them bureaucratic structures. Mintzberg describes them as machine bureaucracies. Authority is usually divided into line, staff and function. Work study and work measurement can help determine the nature of the tasks and workflows and the degree of standardisation and routine in repetitive work.

Many of the more recent management style theories tend to aim for a building up of trust, respect, belonging and relationships leading to consultative and participative styles. The alternatives are close control, supervision and compliance methods. The reasons for this may found in a deep dissatisfaction with the work experience or a natural dislike for work and an avoidance of it among some employees. A balance has to be struck somewhere and Blake and Mouton suggest it should be located between a relative concern of production and a relative concern for people.

Argyris' immaturity-maturity theory suggests that a formalised and bureaucratic approach gives rise to dependent, passive or subservient behaviour that can be classfied as immature. People treated in a immature manner will react in an immature manner. Routine and standardised work in such an environment will use only a small proportion of a person capabilities. Once used to a restricted work situation the person would become like an automaton in a static existence. This approach also assumes that a person is immature and cannot be trusted. If a person's individual maturity is to be developed a suitable management style must be adopted. The individual person can then be enabled to develop their competence, capacity and experience.

Managers who succeed in adopting the right style will make an impression on employees and gain a good reputation for themselves in the workplace, and in the local community, for themselves and the company. They would be setting a good example and become a role model for future managers.