LIKERT’S THEORY OF TEAM MANAGEMENT STYLES
Use this to understand the role, responsibilities and relationships that you have with your team.
Rensis Likert identified four styles to describe the role, responsibilities and relationships that managers have with their team. The four styles run from autocratic despot to a first-among-equals approach to management and have clear links with style leadership (see Theories 12 and 13).
LIKERT’S MANAGEMENT STYLES:
Exploitative–autocratic: The manager has little or no trust in team members and therefore decisions are imposed with minimal consultation. Communication is top down.
Benevolent–authoritative: The manager is condescending towards the team therefore team members are very reluctant to offer ideas or suggestions. Communication upwards is censored.
Consultative: The manager has significant but not complete confidence in the team. Although there is discussion on key issues there is little doubt as to who has the final say. Communication is mostly top down but there are signs of cautious bottom-up streams of communication.
Participative: The manager encourages free and open communication throughout the team. New ideas are welcomed. Rewards and punishments are not necessary as the team assumes full responsibility for getting things done. Everyone has absolute confidence in everyone else.
Likert’s categories clearly run from a highly task-oriented team management style to a highly people-oriented management style.
HOW TO USE IT
- Identify which team management style you prefer. You could use Blake and Mouton’s questionnaire to do this (see Theory 13).
- As circumstances change, analyse the situation and identify which management approach will be most effective in the new situation.
- Be prepared to vary your style of management depending on circumstances. If you need something done quickly and to a precise standard then an autocratic and authoritarian approach may be required. Once the panic is over you can focus more on the democratic, participative approach. It’s all about balancing the needs of the individual, task and organisation, and recognising that these are constantly changing.
- Adopting the correct approach when under pressure is difficult to do. Rehearse different scenarios in your mind before you are faced by them in practice. Know how you will react, why you will react in that way, the impact that the change will have on your team and how you are going to deal with any fallout (see Theory 70).
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- What is my default style of management?
- Which style of management does my team respond to best?