Understand a range of management styles and approaches which support entrepreneurship in the modern workplace (Level 4) The Entrepreneurial Manager Learning outcomes Understand a range of management styles and approaches which support entrepreneurship in the modern workplace Know how to assess a range of management styles and approaches Be able to select appropriate management styles suited to particular organisational situations Understand the benefits, disadvantages and risks of group innovation and decision making Introduction If you were asked to name examples of entrepreneurs, you would probably reply with the names of innovators who have built their own companies. You might name Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs at Apple, Anita Roddick of Body Shop, or James Dyson (best known for inventing and developing rotary cleaners). You might also have listed Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yin, one of the world`s richest self-made women, with an estimated fortune of $1.6 billion. Since the early 1980s she has developed her Dragons Paper business, recycling paper from around the world.
Entrepreneurship and Management Styles Introduction As you saw in the Module Overview, the best known examples of entrepreneurs are those that develop a new idea and start their own companies. However, few of us are going to be lucky or clever enough to build companies such as those of Bill Gates, James Dyson or Zhang Yin.
This section looks at creativity and innovation within organisations; activities that are often given the term intrapreneurship. It’s far more common than entrepreneurship and is essential in our world of constant change.
This section begins by looking at the various aspects of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation within organisations. The later pages of the section then look at ways in which managers can encourage creativity and innovation by adopting particular styles of management.
Defining the terms The term entrepreneur was first applied to individuals who:
Take the steps necessary to turn an innovative product into a marketable commodity (Henry) or
Perceive an opportunity and create an organisation to pursue it. (Bygrave et al). As you can imagine, entrepreneurs are typically described as being achievement-oriented, extrinsically motivated, persistent, able to take risks, and opportunistic. While such people come to the public notice more often if they act independently (like Steve Jobs or Zhang Yin), large organisations increasingly encourage managers and others to act in an entrepreneurial way (sometimes describing them as ‘intrapreneurs’).
The entrepreneurial approach contrasts with the management structures and processes needed to organise routine operations. These tend to be based on long-term goals and short-term financial controls. The aim is to encourage efficient use of current resources and make gradual improvements, but this is unlikely to lead to the radical innovation that the entrepreneur might create.
In-company entrepreneurs Examples of entrepreneurial approaches occur within many corporations and companies. Three articles that show how the approach has created great benefits for organisations are:
Reinventing the intrapreneur http://www.utdallas.edu/~chasteen/Reinventing%20the%20intrapreneur.htm, which highlights historically important examples of innovation at Intel, IBM, and Microsoft
American Idol: The PwC accounting edition http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/11/news/companies/pwc_powerpitch_contest.fortune/index.htm, a competition at accountancy firm PwC to find creative ideas
AWS Global Start-Up Challenge Build Your Startup – AWS Startups (amazon.com), a similar competition for Google employees
Study the three articles, and think about two questions relating to your own organisation:
What new ideas have people in the organisation had in the recent years (remember that they may relate to new products, new services, new ways of working, etc)? How do we encourage people to think of, and develop, new ideas? Feedback If people have not had many new ideas, or if the new ideas have not been developed and implemented, your organisation will remain stagnant. It may seem to be operating efficiently but it is likely that it will experience problems in the future. The business world is ever-changing, and organisations can only keep up by making their own changes, and planning and developing for the future.
When encouraging new ideas, there is a risk that people will think you want a major breakthrough. It is often just as useful if people make suggestions about small changes that will create a commercial advantage: this is the search for continuous improvement.
Types of innovation Innovation may involve a number of mechanisms, offering a range of advantages to the company. The table in Figure 3.1 is based on Tidd et al (see references).
Mechanism
Example/s
Novelty in product
The first mobile phone
Novelty in process
The first internet banking service
Complexity
Rolls Royce cars or business support software systems
Intellectual property
Drugs (Prozac, Viagra)
Additional competitive factors
Car manufacturers offering options (CD players, air conditioning) as standard items
Timing
Amazon.com as first-mover in the field
Robust design
The Boeing 747 is continually innovated but sells largely as a result of 30 years of successful sales and safety
Rewriting the rules
Electric lamps when gas lights were the norm
Reconfiguration
Dell selling computers direct to consumers and supplying their precise needs
Figure 3.1 Examples of innovation relating to each mechanism
Forms of innovation The innovation may also take a number of forms, for example consider the history of the Volkswagen Beetle:
Its introduction in 1935 was a radical innovation. The new ‘people’s car’ sold for not much more than a motorcycle. The model remained in continuous production until 1978. However, the process of incremental innovation meant that no parts remained from the original design by the time the 20-millionth car was delivered. In the late 1990s the car was successfully re-introduced. The transformation was almost total and only hints of the original design remained. It continues in production at the time of writing (2013). Other examples of radical innovation include the Dyson vacuum cleaner, the first Personal Computer, low-energy light bulbs, computerised booking systems for airlines, and so on.
Transformation is probably the least common of the types of change. It typically involves changing an existing product for a new purpose or for a new market. Examples include re-marketing the health drink Lucozade as a performance-enhancing aid to fitness, and the introduction of low-cost airlines (originally aimed at a new market but increasingly seen as challenging the larger airlines).
In practice, incremental innovation is by far the most common approach. Examples include the continuous improvements made to lubricating oils; the benefits gained when companies adopt Total Quality Management; and the gradual improvements in speed and quality from the succession of Hewlett Packard printers.
Note, however, that even the most radical examples of innovation often involve incremental innovation: the Dyson had 5127 prototypes before it reached the production stage.
For more on the types of innovation, and some examples that will help to clarify your understanding, see:
Incremental and Radical Innovation: Can User Centered Design help? http://intenseminimalism.com/2012/incremental-and-radical-innovation-can-user-centered-design-help/ What examples can you think of in your own workplace or industry of:
Radical innovation Transformation Incremental innovation? Feedback The examples listed in the main text were:
Radical innovation – The VW Beetle, the Dyson vacuum cleaner, the first Personal Computer, low-energy light bulbs, computerised booking systems for airlines. Transformation – Lucozade’s re-marketing as a performance-enhancing aid to fitness, and the introduction of low-cost airlines. Incremental innovation – The continuous improvements made to lubricating oils; the benefits gained when adopting Total Quality Management; and the gradual improvements in Hewlett Packard printers. Innovation as a core task As early as 1989, Drucker criticised the idea that a business should have a single objective (such as profit or market share). Instead, he suggested eight key areas:
Market standing Innovation Productivity Physical and financial resources Profitability Manager performance and development Worker performance and attitude, and public responsibility. By 1998, the European Work Organisation Network was writing off ‘innovation as a core task’ that was the responsibility of all employees through continuous improvement programmes, closer liaison with customers and suppliers and all forms of workplace partnership.
Finally, the Organisational Innovation research paper in 2004 commented that:
‘…organizational innovation may be a necessary pre-condition for technological innovation, and thus it is important to take greater account of the role of endogenous organizational forces, such as capacity for learning, values, interests and power in shaping organizational transformation and technological change.’
In other words, managers need to create changes in the organisation itself, and consider factors such as values, power and learning, if they want to create technological change.
Innovation as an organisation-wide process A number of writers have described the development of innovation since the 1960s. At that time it was seen as primarily the responsibility of a Research and Development Department. Increasingly, innovation has been seen as a constant process that involves all parts of an organisation. It is essential to see innovation as involving many (if not all) of the following:
Technology push (where research discovers new products, applications or refinements) and market pull (where the market signals a need for a new solution) Major breakthroughs and incremental changes Changes to components and related links to a wide range of processes (from materials supply, through production to product delivery) a) Who invented the light bulb? (You may be able to answer that question already. If not, try searching the web for the answer.)
b) Was that person solely responsible for making the product available to the public?
Feedback Edison created the first light bulb prototype in 1880, a major breakthrough based on technology push.
Over the following 16 years, there was a series of incremental changes to components, production methods and the various processes from materials supply to product delivery. Some of these developments involved Edison, but many improvements were made by his company’s suppliers and by people within his company. These together reduced the price by 80 percent in response to the market pull for a cheaper product.
Although Edison is credited with the invention of the light bulb, the complete story involves a process of constant innovation over a period of years.
Approaches to entrepreneurship The organisation may adopt many approaches to entrepreneurship. Three common approaches are:
Intrapreneurship. This encourages individuals within the organisation’s existing structures and processes to identify new ideas and plan new developments. Internal organisational venturing. This involves building teams around the intrapreneur. The aim is to develop new businesses while maintaining the existing structures for normal operations. Corporate venturing. The organisation itself demonstrates an entrepreneurial approach, identifying opportunities and changing to work towards those opportunities. The organisation of the venture will typically be based around a management team brought together for that single project. Components of entrepreneurship You saw earlier that Bygrave defines entrepreneurship as ‘perceiving an opportunity and creating an organisation to pursue it’. The process will typically involve a number of steps, preferably empowering all the members of the relevant team to become fully involved. The steps can be summarised as:
Identify a situation (typically an opportunity or problem). Use a network of contacts and information sources to collect relevant information. Creatively identify possible methods of innovation that will use the opportunity or solve the problem. Select the best option. Implement the plans. Note that the steps involve some crucial tasks and terms:
Empowering involves employees being given greater freedom, autonomy and self control of their work and responsibility for their decision making. To encourage all members of the entrepreneurial team to participate, become involved and become committed to a venture, they must be empowered. Networking involves formal and informal discussion with other individuals and teams to collect and share information and ideas. Creativity relates to ideas such as ‘bring into existence’, ‘imaginative’, ‘original’ and ‘flexible’. Creativity is about escaping from old assumptions and discovering new ways of looking. In brief, escaping from ‘mental stuckness’. Innovation, in contrast, uses a blend of creativity, planning and the ability to get things done. It’s the means by which entrepreneurs exploit change as an opportunity to offer a new business or service, or to improve old techniques and work methods. An example of an intrapreneurial breakthrough
In the 1970s, 3M scientist Spencer Silver was searching for a super glue. See how he and Arthur Fry accidentally created Post-It notes in 1980 on:
06 Post It Notes: Accidental Inventions Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUX4As-QpdM Dynamic or static? How does your company view its approach to innovation and growth? If the world of business is constantly changing, then the organisation itself needs to be ‘dynamic’ rather than ‘static’.
Try thinking about changes in relation to external influences, key stakeholders and the major internal influences of your business.
Some possible external forces might be identified using the PESTEL tool, which encourages managers to look for changes relating to Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Eco-environmental, and Legal factors. Possible changes could include:
The economy – during a downturn people may want cheaper products The law – sales of breathalysers increased in France when it became law to carry them in a car at all times The eco-environment – think about the increasing sales of electric cars You could also consider changes relating to stakeholders (shareholders, managers, employees, suppliers, customers, the government and the local population) and to competitors.
Internally, some key changes might relate to factors such as the skills, competencies and attitudes of employees.
Four types of company Kirchoff defined what he called the business dynamic of a company, identifying four business approaches:
Economic core: low-innovation, low-growth companies. These make up the core of the overall economy. Ambitious firms: companies that achieve growth through one, or a few, initial innovations. Dell Computers grew on the basis of one innovative idea of selling personal computers online to suit the specific requirements of each user. Glamorous firms: companies that produce a constant flow of innovation. Microsoft has produced a continuous stream of innovative products. Constrained-growth firms: companies that may either be constrained internally (perhaps an inventor refuses to sell stock to raise the capital needed for further development or innovation) or externally (for instance because investors will not invest in non-fashionable products, or because there is a shortage of suitably qualified staff). Which of those categories best fits your own company? What examples can you think of under the other headings? Feedback As explained in the preceding text, most companies are of the Economic Core type. Do remember, however, that even here there is plenty of scope for innovation. Even if your market does not require new products or services, it is quite likely that employees or managers can come up with innovative ideas that will improve quality, productivity, efficiency or create some other benefit.
One other example under each heading would include:
Ambitious firms: Zhang Yin’s paper recycling company probably comes in this category. She had a brilliant initial idea and plenty of growth is possible without needing major innovation. Glamorous firms: Apple continuously introduces completely new products and further develops the most successful of these. Constrained-growth firms: examples of this type occur in, for example, the steel industry. Worldwide over-production has discouraged investors from investing, even in new techniques or products. Requirements for the entrepreneurial organisation This page is based on Vandermerve and Birley’s report of a survey of executives of major organisations that had worked through radical ‘customer transformations’. It assessed to what extent the executives had acted like ‘enterprising leaders’. The companies involved included BT, Ciba Geigy, IBM, ICI, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Singapore Airlines.
The researchers identified certain approaches that the corporate leaders felt were essential for an entrepreneurial organisation. They summarised their key conclusions as follows:
Develop new, proactive and process skills. This may involve bringing in new, creative people, and also allowing people to trust their instincts and feelings. Encourage experimentation and reward success. The leaders defined success by how much the innovation makes the corporation more competitive. There is an associated need to manage failure successfully, an essential requirement since innovation inevitably involves taking risks. Work on twin tracks, focussing both on what can be improved immediately and on what will take longer. Unlock enterprise and define risk differently, allowing ‘venturesome people’ to make decisions. Develop new leadership skills, using language and tools that will continually change to suit present and future needs (rather than being based solely on the past). Im
The list of conclusions relates to the work of senior executives. To what extent:
Do senior executives in your own organisation follow those suggestions? Would it possible for you to follow similar suggestions when managing your own team? Feedback
Your responses to those questions will vary depending on your own organisation, as well as the management approaches of senior management and yourself.
One key issue that you may need to consider is the question of consistency. It will be difficult for senior managers to encourage entrepreneurship if middle and first line managers do not adopt a similar approach. Equally, it might be difficult for a front line manager to encourage entrepreneurship within a single team if it is discouraged by senior management.
Note also that these conclusions are based on the thoughts of corporate leaders who have successfully transformed their companies to create entrepreneurial organisations. The researchers did not consider whether existing managers are able to change and adopt these approaches, or whether the new role needs new managers. The research also does not consider those companies where similar approaches have been tried, but have been less successful or have failed.
Blake and Mouton’s Management Styles
The previous pages have shown that the ideas of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation are all essential in any organisation that is to have a long term future. We now need to look at how the ways that managers work with their teams and other employees is likely to affect creativity and innovation.
One commonly used approach to the leadership styles used by managers was suggested by Blake and Mouton. Their Leadership Grid helps managers to analyse their management style in relation to two factors:
Concern for production Concern for people They identify five common leadership styles:
The impoverished manager has a low concern for both people and production. The aim is to avoid paying too much attention to production (which will cause difficulties with staff) or too much attention to the needs of staff (which will create problems with production). The authority-compliance manager has high concern for production and low concern for people. The aim is to create conditions of work which ensure high output, and thus create trust and respect. The country-club manager has low concern for production but high concern for people. The approach is to create a comfortable, friendly working atmosphere. The team manager has high concern for production and high concern for people. The aim is to accomplish work through committed people working well together. The middle-of-the-road manager has moderate concern for production and moderate concern for people. The aims are to maintain morale while creating an acceptable level of output. Note that the various different styles may all be useful, but must be selected to suit the particular situation. For example, country-club managers can spend nearly all their time looking after their team members if they are confident that those team members are doing good work. In contrast, impoverished managers may decide that the best approach to a successful existing team is to let them continue as they were, through monitoring performance and people carefully to identify when the manager needs to intervene.
Try the following questionnaire to assess which style you most often adopt: Leadership Self Assessment Questionnaire http://www.bumc.bu.edu/facdev-medicine/files/2010/10/Leadership-Matrix-Self-Assessment-Questionnaire.pdf ] Thinking of the managers that you have seen in action and worked with, see if you can identify examples from each of Blake and Mouton’s categories. Now think about this theory in relation to innovation and creativity. Which of the leadership styles do you think would be most likely to encourage individual employees and teams to think of new ideas, discuss them, and perhaps try them out? Feedback Questions 1 and 2
One key idea in this activity is that there is one style that you ‘most often’ adopt. Blake and Mouton emphasise that effective leaders will vary their focus to suit different situations.
On the other hand, they also found that, overall, it was the managers with high concern for both production and people that maximised production and also were most likely to gain promotion themselves.
Finally, Mullins comments that the dominant style of management will be influenced by four factors:
The nature of the organisation The manager’s personal beliefs and values The manager’s personal history (for example, the effect of the managerial styles that she or he has experienced in the past) Luck – the style chosen will be highly influenced by the manager’s previous experiences, unless the manager has specific training in leadership/management styles Question 3
Encouraging creativity and innovation needs a focus on people and their needs. The manager needs to encourage individuals to come up with their own ideas, and to encourage them to discuss them and plan how to implement them.
The focus on productivity gives the manager some difficulty in relation to innovation. If the manager focuses only on short-term productivity it can easily lead to comments like “Why are you wasting time on thinking of new ideas? We’ve got targets to meet.” On the other hand, the manager who has a longer-term view could make comments such as “I don’t mind if we miss this week’s target as long as the new ideas increase our productivity over the year.”
™
National characteristics
Hofstede suggests five different dimensions that describe differences between people in countries around the world. The two key ones in relation to innovation are:
Power Distance: the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Uncertainty Avoidance: the degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. Study the two examples shown in Figure 3.2 based on information on the Hofstede website:
Power Distance
Uncertainty Avoidance
Spain
Score 57
This reflects that hierarchical distance is accepted and those in the most powerful positions are admitted to have privileges for their position.
Score 86
The very high score on this dimension defines Spain very clearly. People like to have rules for everything. Confrontation is avoided as it causes great stress. There is great concern about changing, ambiguous and undefined situations.
United States
Score 40
This low score links to the American ideas of “liberty and justice for all”. It also reflects the focus on equal rights in all aspects of American society and government.
Score 46
American society can be described as “uncertainty accepting.” There is a large degree of acceptance for new ideas, innovative products and a willingness to try something new or different.
Figure 3.2 Examples of two of Hofstede’s dimensions in two countries
Both of those factors are likely to affect employee’s perceptions of managers, and their attitudes towards those managers and the different styles of management employed.
Go to the Hosfstede’s website and investigate the scores for your own country. All of the scores will be of interest, but for the purpose of this module, remember that the two key measures are Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance.
The relevant page of the website is Countries http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html. On that page, use the drop down menu to select the country you want to investigate.
Note that once you have the information on one country you can also use the Comparison Country menu to compare your first country with any other in the world.
Likert’s Systems of Management Likert investigated 200 organisations and tried to find a relationship between the management’s approach (which he called a ‘system of management’) and organisational performance. He defined four management systems:
Exploitive authoritative. Decisions are imposed by managers, and responsibility is based on the upper levels of the organisational hierarchy. Motivation is based on threats, with very little teamwork or communication. Benevolent authoritative. Leaders tend to be condescending. Motivation is based on a system of rewards, and there is only limited teamwork or communication. Responsibility is shared between managerial levels. Consultative. Leadership involves some trust of subordinates. Motivation is based on rewards but there is also some involvement and some teamwork. Communication occurs both vertically and horizontally, and responsibility is spread more widely through the hierarchy. Participative group. Leaders trust and have confidence in their subordinates. Motivation is based on rewards for achievement of agreed goals, there is participation and a high degree of teamwork and communication. Responsibility for achieving the organisation’s goals is shared through all levels of the hierarchy. Likert’s main conclusion was that the participative group approach created a number of benefits. There were likely to be:
Long-term improvements in staff turnover High earnings High productivity and organisational effectiveness Low levels of waste and low costs He suggested that organisations that aimed to follow a participative group system needed:
Supportive relationships among members of the organisation, and in particular between superior and subordinate Group decision-making and group methods of organisation and supervision High performance aspirations for all members of the organisation Sm
You can find a more detailed description of Likert’s four systems in:
Likert’s Management Systems http://managementstudyguide.com/likerts-management-system.htm Then use your understanding of this web page to complete the following Involve me activity.
Im
Which of Likert’s systems is most like the management system used in your own organisation?
Confirm your classification by considering to what extent there are:
supportive relationships among members of the organisation and in particular between superior and subordinate; group decision-making and group methods of organisation and supervision; and high performance aspirations for all members of the organisation. Assess to what extent a participative system in your organisation would (or already does) encourage:
long-term improvements in staff turnover; high earnings; high productivity and organisational effectiveness; and low levels of waste and low costs. Feedback
Questions 1 and 2 As with the questions about Blake and Mouton’s grid, the first two questions may highlight differences between different parts of your organisation. For example, while the main organisation might be exploitive authoritarian, a particular manager might run the team in a more democratic way.
Question 3 Likert’s research showed that all these benefits were likely to occur if an organisation was more participative. If you don’t think they would happen in your own organisation, there may be a number of possible reasons; for example:
Likert’s research was in the US – your national culture may be different. For example, according to Hofstede, Japanese workers are more likely than Americans to accept formal power exerted by managers. The choice of approach may vary between different types of organisation, and even within an organisation. For example, many armed forces very carefully use different approaches in different situations: authoritarian when dealing with a large group but participative in a small patrol group. Participation may also be more relevant in an innovative organisation, such as a software company, but less relevant in a traditional industry such as steel making. The approach may be different at different levels of the organisation. Perhaps team members can be innovative and participate in planning their own work, even though individual managers are given very little freedom to make their own decisions. Likert and innovation Now think about how Likert’s classification may apply to innovation. If you and your organisation want to encourage innovation and creativity, it seems likely that you want employees to feel free to make their own suggestions, to discuss new ideas, and to feel that they can contribute to change that will lead to improvements in factors such as productivity, efficiency or quality.
Those words ‘feel free’, ‘contribute’ and ‘discuss’ all suggest that people working in a participative organisation will be more likely to contribute creative and innovative ideas, and then to plan and implement the changes needed.
How much would (or does) a participative system in your organisation encourage creativity? To what extent can you encourage a participative system in your own team or department, even if your organisation uses one of the other systems? Feedback
As in the previous Involve me activity, you may need to consider three key questions:
To what extent do Likert’s ideas apply in your own national culture? Are there factors in your organisation or industry which suggest that a participative approach may not be the most appropriate? Is it possible to use different approaches at different levels (or with different teams) in your organisation? Conclusion
This section has explained what entrepreneurship is, and how it is based on creativity and innovation. You then saw how the findings of Blake and Mouton, and Likert can be used to categorise management styles and systems. Using those categories, you started to assess how well your organisation encourages innovation and creativity.
In the next section we will look at the specific role of the manager in managing the work of the team or department. The focus will initially be on finding the right balance between managing people and organising the work. Then we will look at the subject of aims, targets and objectives, and the technique of Managing By Objectives (MBO).
The following website gives a fuller description of the leadership grid. See:
The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_73.htm Note one point about the title of this page. When the authors first introduced their grid they used the term Managerial Grid, but after further research they renamed it the Leadership Grid.
A second webpage is based on LIkert’s theory and includes a particularly useful table showing how the various systems would affect the trust, motivation and interaction within each type of organisation:
A Fast Learner`s Guide to Leadership: Rensis Likert http://www.odportal.com/leadership/fastlearner/likert.htm Managing in Practice Introduction
In the first section you saw how management styles can encourage, or discourage, creativity and innovation within an organisation.
This section looks first at some very common approaches to management. We start by looking at what managers actually do, focusing on the work of John Adair with his ideas of Action-Centred Leadership.
™
We then look at Management by Objectives. This approach to management tries to define team and employee aims, and to ensure that they contribute to the organisation’s purpose.
Finally, you’ll use your understanding of management styles and approaches to see how you and your team members can assess their current performance. They can then plan training and development programmes that will lead to greater creativity and innovation in the future.
Functional management The previous section showed that researchers like Blake, Mouton and Likert investigated how managers carry out their work. It looked, for example, at styles of management. This section, in contrast, focuses instead on what the manager does. In other words, it looks at the tasks and functions of the manager.
One of the most influential writers in this field has been John Adair, with his idea of Action-Centred Leadership.
Action-Centred Leadership
Adair’s model of action-centred leadership groups the actions that leaders take under three headings, as shown in Figure 4.1:
Task needs: These focus on the common tasks that the group is carrying out. Team maintenance needs: The actions needed to maintain and encourage the team. Individual needs: These are the tasks needed to deal with the needs of the individuals in the team.
Figure 4.1 Adair’s three types of need
Note that the circles overlap, showing that the various tasks are interdependent:
If the manager ignores individual needs, then the team will suffer and the task may not be completed satisfactorily. Ignoring the team may lead to individual problems, and again the task may not be completed satisfactorily. Ignoring the task means that the team and the individuals may become dissatisfied if their own task is not clear or if problems occur. The following pages will explain more about each of these groups of tasks.
Task needs
Adair listed the task needs as follows:
Achieving the objectives of the work group Planning the work Defining group tasks Allocation of resources Organising duties and responsibilities Controlling quality and checking performance Reviewing progress The first of those defines what the team is trying to achieve. The later ones list, in a fairly standard way, the approach of the manager, from planning the initial task through to checking progress and making any changes that are needed.
Im
Think of a clearly defined task or project that you and your team have completed recently. Does Adair’s list accurately summarise what you did? Which of the items on Adair’s list would managers need to consider if they were trying to encourage innovation and creativity? Feedback
It’s perhaps easiest to think about the list by thinking what would happen if you did not carry out some of the activities. If you didn’t allocate resources (or define the group’s tasks), it’s very unlikely that you would have successfully completed the task. You will probably have concluded that managers do need to at least consider every item on Adair’s list. When trying to encourage creativity and innovation, the manager may need to redefine the objectives. The team needs to know that you want them to look for new ideas, to find solutions to problems, and to look for ways of improving performance and output. If a new idea is suggested, then the manager and, often, the team members need to work through the remaining items on the list to put the new idea into practice. Team maintenance needs
Adair defines the different elements of satisfying team maintenance needs as:
Maintaining morale and building team spirit Ensuring the cohesiveness of the group as a working unit Setting standards and maintaining discipline Creating systems of communication within the group Training the group Appointing sub-leaders Consider a situation where one team member thinks of a new way of working. Some people will welcome the idea, but others may not want to change their old ways of working. People who have high levels of risk avoidance (in Hofstede’s terms) may worry about the risks of adopting new plans. As manager, you have to think carefully about how you will communicate the new plans, and whether people will need training in the new methods.
Use the following Involve me activity to think about how the items on Adair’s list might relate to this scenario.
™
The following scenario describes a typical situation when a team member suggests a new way of working. Drag and drop each of Adair’s team maintenance needs to show how they relate to each of the elements of the story.
Manager’s action to satisfy the team maintenance need
Some people are enthusiastic about the change but others are saying, “What’s wrong with the old ways?”
Ensure the cohesiveness of the group as a working unit
A team members comments, “This is really damaging the team. We all want something different.”
Maintain morale and build team spirit
Arvinda, who has planned the new idea, wants everyone in the team to know that she is responsible for overseeing implementation.
Appoint sub-leaders
Arvinda considers that the team needs to have a meeting at which she can explain the plans. Emails will then be used to supply details of the new procedures.
Create systems of communication within the group
Two people in the group will need to learn new skills, and the whole group will learn the procedures during the one week trial.
Train the group
Some team members are very unhappy and say they do not want to adopt the new methods. The manager tells them that they must at least try the new approach.
Set standards and maintain discipline
Figure 4.2 Matching actions to needs
Feedback
This scenario highlights a number of issues that can arise when a team member, or a group of people, suggests new ways of working.
Many of the approaches that a manager adopts will be those used by change managers. These typically relate to words like inspire, explain, consult, involve, and so on.
The manager may also need to think about the various ways of overcoming resistance. One key question here is whether the resistance is justified. It may be that people are resisting simply because they do not want to change; on the other hand, it may be that their resistance is based on serious doubts about whether the change will produce the improvements that are claimed.
Change management
Much of the description of team maintenance needs relates to the topic of change management. It may be that you have already studied this topic, or that you will cover it in a later module. At this stage, if you want to find out a little more about change management, see:
Change Management http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm You can also see a video clip by a highly influential writer on change at:
John Kotter – The Heart of Change http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKti9MyAAw, note that this video will show you links to many other videos by Kotter. A video describing Kotter’s eight steps can be found on:
Eight steps to leading and managing change http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxACLCZRoKw Individual needs
The final circle in Adair’s model relates to the needs of individuals in the team. Adair list the manager’s tasks as:
Meeting the needs of the individual members of the group Attending to personal problems Giving praise and status Reconciling conflicts between group needs and the needs of the individual. Thinking again about the scenario involving Arvinda, the manager might act in a number of ways in response to those needs. For example, he or she might realise that the new way of working posed problems for one team member. Perhaps Angela has to leave work early on one day each week to care for an elderly relative.
The manager may first tell Angela that she can continue to leave early (Meeting the needs of the individual members of the group). He may also explain that she could take time off if the relative has to go to hospital (Attending to personal problems).
The manager may then need to explain why this is being done, and that it will not affect other team members (Reconciling conflicts between group needs and needs of the individual).
Finally, the manager will publicly praise Arvinda for her work in suggesting and planning the change (Giving praise and status).
Im
Identify examples of how you have carried out each of Adair’s Individual Needs’ tasks in the past.
How effective were your actions? Can you think of any ways in which you could act better in future in similar situations?
Feedback
Thinking about the four items in Adair’s list may have highlighted that the manager can often feel conflicting requirements. When attending to the personal problem of one team member, you may feel that a conflict between solving that problem and meeting group needs arises. In the examples given, allowing Angela to leave early may reduce the output of the team: how will team members feel about that?
Finally, think about Adair’s individual needs in relation to yourself. You have probably seen managers take actions relating to these needs, perhaps in relation to your own problems or needs. How effective were they? What conflicts existed for those managers? Thinking about those questions will highlight that trying to satisfy people’s needs is not always easy.
You can find a book-length source of Adair’s thoughts about leadership on the following website. See:
Develop Your Leadership Skills https://grabebook.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/develop-your-leadership-skills.pdf Pages 17 to 25 relate to the three circle model. You should also use the contents page to find additional sections that interest you in relation to leadership.
For a video describing how managers can use Adair’s model in practice, see:
Balanced Leadership: Team, Task Individual https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VHyzxYPnVM Specialist or manager?
Adair’s model highlights one important question relating to managers. Is their role to be a specialist who has great knowledge about the team’s tasks, or to focus on the people and the organisation of their work?
French and Raven identified five sources of power that a manager may have, and may use when leading the team:
Reward power. Team members may follow if they think the leader has to power to give rewards such as pay, promotion, increased responsibilities or increased privileges. Coercive power. This is based on the fear that the leader can punish the team member in some way if they do not follow instructions. For example, the team member may fear formal reprimand, withholding of bonus payments, or withdrawal of respect. Legitimate power. Power may be based on the manager’s role. The team member follows the leader because that person has the title of ‘manager’. Referent power. The leader exerts influence because of personal characteristics, reputation or charisma. Note that not all team members may be affected in the same way by the leader’s reputation or characteristics. Expert power. The team member may follow a leader because of that leader’s special knowledge or expertise. You can see from the first three types of power on French and Raven’s list that a manager may be able to influence a team for many reasons that are nothing to do with his or her skills or knowledge of the work itself. In contrast, the manager may have power because of a deep understanding of the work that people do (Expert power).
Referent power may also be based on expertise in the work itself. For example, a manager may have a reputation gained from doing the work. The manager may be able to use reputation as a source of power when promoted to a new managerial role.
You can find more about this theory by going to:
French and Raven`s Five Forms of Power http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm When you have studied that web page, go to the following Involve me activity and check your understanding. You will also get a chance to apply this theory to your own workplace.
Drag and drop the various types of power to show how they apply to this scenario involving manager Ken and his team of engineers: