Management styles in an organizational life cycle

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Management styles in an organizational life cycle

Asante Vera Doeyo

2nd year Masters Student in General and Strategic Management Institute of Management, Economics, and Finance, Kazan Federal University, Russian Federation, Kazan, doeyoasante@gmail.com

Abstract

This article discusses the various management styles in organizations and their interplay in an organizational life cycle. The author offers a brief discussion on the various management styles such as the participative, autocratic, democratic, paternalistic, laissez-faire and transformational management styles in an organization. The author also describes the characteristics of each of the aforementioned management styles in an organization, and the organizational life cycle stages. In this article, the author briefly describes the relationship between employers and subordinates in each management style.

Keywords: English, Organizational life cycle, management style, and organization

Стили управления в жизненном цикле организации

Асанте Вера Доейо

Магистрант 2-го курса Общего и стратегического менеджмента, Институт Управления, Экономики и Финансов, Казанский (Приволжский) Федеральный Университет, Россия, Казань, doeyoasante@gmail.com

Аннотация: В данной статье рассматриваются различные стили управления в организациях и их взаимодействие в качестве жизненного цикла организации. Автор предлагает краткое обсуждение различных стилей управления, такие как, самодержавного на участие, демократическое, патерналистское, невмешательство и трансформационные стили управления в организациях. Автор также описывает характеристики каждого из вышеупомянутых стилей управления в организации, а также организационные этапы жизненного цикла. В этой статье автор кратко описывает отношения между работодателями и подчиненными в каждом стиле управления.

Ключевые слова: Английский, жизненный цикл организации, стиль управления, а также организации

I. Introduction

The life cycle theory posits that organization just like human beings and any other living thing has life in the form of a cycle. Thus just as human beings are born, grow to old age and die, so also is an organization. An organization is created from the infancy stage, begins to grow and matured and finally decline or die. At each stage of the life cycle, organizational characteristics, resources, capacity, and challenges differ. From this perspective, this article infers and hypothesizes that every stage of organizational life cycle requires different managerial or leadership style to help the organization maintain growth and adapt to changing business environment and complex consumer demands.

From literature search, a lot has been said about the dynamics of organizational life cycle but there is a limited study on how it relates with leadership styles as well as analysis of the type of management style required in each cycle to help the organization maintain growth.

This article follows the debate on organizational life cycle from various scholars and relates it to management styles in an organization. Thus the article seeks to ask what kind of leadership style is required at each stage of the organizational life cycle or does each stage require a combination of different management styles to help the organization better transition from one stage to the other while maintaining growth?

II. Organizational life cycle (OLC)

From literature search, several theories by scholars present different models of the organizational life cycle with different stages ranging from 2 to 33. However, this article relies on the four main categorizations of organizational life cycle aggregated by Quinn and Cameron [1, 33-51] for discussion and analysis.

The first stage of the organizational life cycle from their categorization is the entrepreneurial stage. According to its proponents, this stage relies mainly on the founder's motivation and commitment as the main driving force behind the growth of the organization. At this stage, creativity is encouraged. Adizes [2, 4-5] adds that at this stage there is easy and quick communication between members as well as towards market response. Grenier [3, 55-68] agrees with Adizes [2, 4-5] and shared that decision-making process at this stage is simple and quick and the leader takes all responsibilities.

In the article, `Evolution and revolution as organizations grow', [4, 37-46], the author advances that at this stage the organization or firm requires managerial role that can initiate production efficiency and bring competencies. However, Galbraith [5, 70-79] opined that coordination among staff is weak since the internal structure of the firm does not really exist to facilitate teamwork at this stage. The main features at this stage are focused on the development of a prototype or marketable product, management of available finance, informal culture, centralization of decision making, small organizational size, highly skilled workers and long hours of work.

The second stage has to do with cooperation also known as expansion stage where the organization has succeeded in creating a product and secured some funds and few customers. Here, the organization seeks to build its product in large quantities to obtain much revenue. Again, the organization's focus here is on increasing sales and revenue and as a result, requires additional skilled personnel and delegation of most responsibilities since the owner would be unable to handle everything.

The third stage of the cycle is maturity stage or consolidation stage and the focus of the organization is on achieving organizational effectiveness. Here, formal structures are in place and the organization becomes more bureaucratic because of the need to follow procedures and process to better control business activities and achieve effectiveness. [6, 61-85] describes this stage as the optimal stage where growth rate peaks. At this stage, the organizations put emphasis on control and administrative work. Greiner in [3, 55-68] adds that communication at this stage is based on hierarchy and no longer informal and organization becomes centralized, restricted and rigid. In the article, `Five stages of growth in small business', Scott. M. & Bruce. R expressed that at this stage there is a formal organizational structure supported by established office systems, rules and regulations [7, 45-52]. The authors Katz. D. & Kahn R. L., notes that employees at this stage interact and perform with common objectives but the organization is hierarchical and bureaucratic in nature [8, 6-9]. Adizes in [6, 61-85] contends with Greiner [3, 55-68], that at this stage administrative efforts supersede entrepreneurial spirit and that there exists no interpersonal communication as decision making is hindered by some more structured long-term priorities.

The last stage is the decline stage where there is fall in revenue and reduction in organizational resources. According to Ashim. G., [9, 2-3] several factors such as reduction in market share, reduced labor force, lack of customers, economic crisis, obsolete technology or organizational atrophy account for this decline.

III. Management styles in an organization

management style cycle participative

Management style simply means methods employed by managers in administering an organization [10, 83]. This may include directing, controlling and other methods adopted by the manager to motivate subordinates to follow instructions. Management styles bring together different organizational activities and functions. It determines how organization's policies are made, strategies used and how tasks are performed to achieve organizational goals.

In an organization, some managers are basically task oriented and want to get things done, others focus on people and want people to be happy and satisfied and others are a combination of both which demonstrate different management styles used in an organization. Several management styles have evolved over time with different scholars coming out with different management styles in an organization. This study will focus on participative, autocratic, democratic, paternalistic, laissez-faire and transformational management styles.

Participative management styles

Participative management styles allow interaction between management and employees. With this style, employees are informed about issues affecting work whiles management and employees share in decision making and problem-solving. Management acts as a coach and gets their team of employees work together to improve organizational performance.

Autocratic management style

In autocratic management style, the manager retains much power in decision making and everything that concerns the organization. The manager does not consult employees and allow them to bring their input in decision making. Employees only obey orders and this management style focuses on task and not on human resource.

Democratic management style

A democratic managerial style allows subordinates to share information and ideas, seeks ideas and information from employees and encourages subordinates. Employees' views are respected and taken into consideration during decision making and there is trust in employees.

Paternalistic Management Style

In this management style, the leader decides what is best for employees as well as the organization. It is a fatherly style like with a combination of authority, discipline, fatherly benevolence and moral integrity [11, 92-130]. Here, subordinates' suggestions and feedback are also taken into consideration before a decision is taken which makes employees feel more attached and loyal to the organization. This motivates them to work well.

Laissez -Faire Management Style

Laissez-faire management style makes no rules in the organization. It's a kind of leadership where there are practically no rules in the organization. In this style managers allow subordinates complete freedom to make their own decision with regards their work. It provides guidance and support to subordinates when needed. Subordinates are provided all that they need to accomplish a task and managers only assist when subordinates request their support.

Transformational Management style

A transformational leader assists followers in reaching their full potential by providing attention to their needs and motivates followers [12, 179-183]. They state future goals and develop plans as to achieve them, as a result, transformational leaders motivate followers to do more than they originally thought possible [13, 9-12]. In interaction, transformational leaders focus on the process of helping people, transforming themselves from followers to leaders [14, 120-129]. Transformational leaders use charisma, inspiration, challenge, and encouragement to assist associates in reaching a higher collective purpose, vision, and mission of an organization [15, 21-27].

IV. Creating the link between management styles and organizational life cycle

Clearly, the various stages of the organizational life cycle point to the fact that certainly there is a link/s with management styles as each cycle requires certain management style to move the organization forward or maintain stability.

At the entrepreneurial stage of every organization, it could be said that a combination of autocratic, democratic and transformational management styles is needed to maintain growth as the organization traverses to the next stage. Been the first stage which dwells on the manager's creativity and intuition, the leader must be firm in his thoughts well as winning employees' support by taking into consideration their timely suggestions.

At the second stage, there is the need for a leader who is democratic and transformational to move the organization forward as the organization seeks to expand, produce in large quantities and requires more workers and delegation of responsibilities. Thus such leaders listen to employees, take their input in decision making and delegate responsibilities. They also motivate employees to perform better and set challenging expectations and achieve them.

Analysis of the third stage demonstrates that organization becomes more bureaucratic in structure and functions which reflects an autocratic management style.

The last stage calls for the need for the organization to conduct a survey to identify the factors leading to the decline. This, therefore, requires a transformational leadership style to be able to turn things around by identifying problems and initiating change.

V. Conclusion

From the above exploration, it could be said that indeed every stage of the organizational life cycle requires certain leadership styles to help the organization maintain stability and growth. However, there could be a combination at a certain stage. Every organization that's in its inception and aims at developing, for instance, needs a leader who is democratic, autocratic and transformational at the same time. It is, therefore, prudent managers of various organizations critically pay attention to the stage the organizations they are in so as to know which leadership style(s) needs to be employed to ensure a smooth running of the business.

Список литературы

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