Internship: Styles of Management
Managers and leaders of various organizations have different styles of managing their organizations. This is because of the varying types of businesses or organizations they lead, varying types of operating environments, goals and objectives of the organizations and personalities of managers, the policies and the organizational culture of their companies. According to Ivancevich, Konopaske, and Matteson, different challenging situations arise in the day-to-day operations of an organization. Therefore, a manager must choose an appropriate management style which would enable him or her lead all organizational members towards the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. Moreover, a manager may deploy different management styles depending on the prevailing conditions or situation in the organization. A management style refers to an approach or method of leading workers at the workplace. The most common types of management styles include autocratic, democratic, consultative, laissez faire, paternalistic, and persuasive. My internship in a hotel restaurant, in China, provided me with a unique opportunity to learn how managers exercise different management styles in order to ensure that the employees and organizations achieve the set goals, objectives and missions and ensure success in the company. In addition, the internship gave me an opportunity to learn how a management style chosen by a manager in an organization can increase competiveness of the organization especially in highly sensitive and competitive industries such as the hospitality industry.
The Management Style of Mr. Huang
With reference to the hotel restaurant in which I undertook the internship, I would assert that the manager, Mr. Huang, deployed a democratic style of management. Democratic management style refers to a management style in which the manager is open to other workers in the company and incorporates their opinions or points of view and suggestions during decision-making processes. Through a democratic management style, workers are encouraged to contribute equally during decision-making processes. The workers are also actively involved in the management of day-to-day operations in the organization. A democratic management style usually emphasizes on making decisions, which reflect the opinions of all workers. The workers are usually encouraged to work as a single team. Mr. Huang, the manager of the hotel restaurant, usually consulted his subordinates or junior workers before making any business decision. He held a series of meetings, consultations, interviews and brainstorming sessions to seek the contributions of other workers in the organization. Mr. Huang believes that employees are the most valuable assets of the organization who have the ability to identify areas of weaknesses in the organization which require transformation and opportunities for success which the organization could pursue.
In my opinion, the democratic style of management that was adopted by Mr. Huang proved to be highly useful when complex decisions requiring contributions from a range of experts or specialists were to be made. For example, when the company was considering introducing a new information system (IS) to be used in the hotel which would improve service delivery, all the employees were consulted, and their opinions were gathered and analyzed to determine the best type of information system that would be developed and implemented by the organization. Valuable contributions were received from employees in the computing and information technology department, service quality control department, business development department, finance department, and the risk management unit among others.
Other Styles of Management Studied in One of the College Courses
A different style of management that is almost similar to the democratic style of management adopted by Mr. Huang is the chaotic management style which gives all employees in an organization the total control of decision-making processes in the company. In a chaotic management style, the manager does not have any control during decision-making processes. Although chaotic management style is rapidly becoming popular among managers in most organizations because of its high level of influence and ability to encourage innovativeness in the organization, I would argue that democratic is more suitable than chaotic management style because it enables the manager to provide appropriate leadership and direction to employees who participate in the decision-making processes. This helps in ensuring that the best decisions are not left out due to majority rule. Another management style, which is similar to democratic management style, is consultative, also known as participative management style. A consultative management style involves seeking the views and feedbacks from employees on issues affecting an organization. However, the workers are not directly involved in the decision-making processes.
In contrast to democratic management style is the autocratic one. Through autocratic management, a manager makes all decisions unilaterally without involving the employees or taking their interests into considerations. According to Boland, Noland, Rutigliano and Video Education Australasia, autocratic management style is only suitable in situations that require urgent decision making or actions that may not receive a positive response or support from employees such as dismissal or retrenchment of workers. However, autocratic management style is likely to lead to high levels of dissatisfaction among workers, low levels of performance, and high rates of employee turnover.
Effectiveness of Democratic Management Style in Boosting the Morale of the Staff
I would assert that the democratic management style that was deployed by Mr. Huang is highly recommendable and effective in boosting the morale of workers. This is because it gives room for active participation of workers during decision-making processes. The involvement of employers during decision-making processes usually results into high levels of satisfaction among workers because the employees feel respected, valued, and appreciated by the organization. This helps in boosting the morale of workers. Ivancevich, Konopaske, and Matteson also agree that democratic management style is highly suitable for an organization because it motivates workers due to increased valuation and appreciation of workers by the employer. Moreover, the morale of workers is also boosted by democratic management style because it gives workers an opportunity to determine what they want and what they deem suitable for the entire organization. Employees also have a chance to influence the day-to-day operations and management of the organization.
However, using democratic management style may also be highly challenging when critical decisions have to be made within a short period of time. This is because democratic management style requires intensive consultations, which are exhaustive and time consuming. Moreover, interpersonal conflicts among workers may also hinder the smoothness of decision-making processes.
