Professor Rensis Likert of Michigan University studied the patterns and styles of managers and leaders for three decades. He suggests four styles of management, which are the following:
Exploitative-authoritative management:
– Managers are highly autocratic, showing little trust in subordinates.
– The prime drivers are motivating people through fear and punishment.
– Managers engage in downward communication and limit decision making to the top.
Benevolent-authoritative management:
– The manager has condescending confidence and trust in subordinates
(master-servant relationship).
– Management uses rewards and upward communication is censored or restricted.
– The subordinates do not feel free to discuss things about the job with their superior. Teamwork or communication is minimal and motivation is based on a system of rewards.
Consultative management:
– Managers have substantial but not complete confidence and trust in subordinates.
– Use rewards for motivation with occasional punishment and some participation, usually try to make use of subordinates’ ideas and opinions.
– Communication flow is both up and down.
– Broad policy and general decisions are made at the top while allowing specific decisions to be made at lower levels and act consultatively in other ways.
Participative management:
– Managers have trust and confidence in subordinates.
– Responsibility is spread widely through the organizational hierarchy.
– Some amount of discussion about job-related issues take place between the superior and subordinates.
Likert concluded that managers who applied the participative management approach to their operations had the greatest success as leaders.
