Models of Management and Leadership

Models of Management and Leadership – Are You Up To Speed? Master These, and Be a Business Super Model!

Models of management and leadership help us navigate our increasingly complex business environment. They offer a mix of perspectives on running companies successfully.  Understanding and practising the best ways to lead your team is crucial. Use the different models’ learnings to keep your business agile and resilient, and you’ll reap the rewards.

This article explores the different models of management and leadership developed over the years. In today’s fluid environment, leaders and managers achieve their objectives, not by following rigid formulas but by pivoting with the circumstances. The most successful businesspeople are situational, or contingency, leaders. They know no single management model or style of leadership will prove suitable in every situation. But grasping the different models can help everyone be effective in changing times.

What are Models of Management and Leadership?

Businesspeople use management and leadership models as strategies to meet their goals and objectives. The first one to consider is Kotter’s Model of Leadership and Management. In 1990 John Paul Kotter argued that management and leadership have different functions. Management’s central function is to provide order and consistency, whereas leadership produces change and movement. You need both for any business to succeed.

This is The Real World – Changing Your Leadership Model as People Develop

To understand how the different management models fit together, first, let’s see how employers tailor their leadership style as people develop competence and commitment:

1. The Hired Help:

You take someone on temporarily, for a specific job. They do what you tell them. You’re the boss. This is transactional leadership.

2. Telling or Directing:

They join you permanently. Initially, you focus on supervising and completing the task at hand, rather than developing a relationship. Again, they do the work the way you say, with no argument. This is authoritative or autocratic leadership.

3. Selling:

The newbie has gained competence and commitment but needs to be more fully engaged to reach the necessary performance levels. This calls for coaching leadership. You tuned in to what they need to learn to progress.

4. Participating:

They prove competent but inconsistent and not yet fully committed. You engage and motivate them to carry out the work at the level required. This is inspirational leadership.

5. Delegating:

The employee now feels fully empowered to take the ball and run with it, requiring minimal supervision. They’re delivering the results you want. You listen to their ideas on how to do the work more effectively and grow their part of it. This is democratic leadership.

6. Handing Over:

You leave your employee to run their part of the business, reporting to you. You agree on the targets, then leave them to get on with it. This is laissez-faire leadership. But you still make sure everything’s on track and get authoritative when required.

Leaders and managers are used to working with people. And they know their business. But understanding the different models better will help make them better at running it.

The Two Biggest Management Models you need to Grasp are Classical Management Theory and Modern Management Theory

Classical management theory goes back to ancient times. It takes an assembly line view of the workplace, breaking large tasks into smaller ones. Workers understand their roles and specialise in a single area. Managers measure performance by output. The classical model maximises efficiency and productivity. It assumes workers are primarily motivated by physical needs and monetary incentives. Ability is recognised, but managers typically achieve performance through authoritative or autocratic leadership. Classical management theory is the basis for task-oriented industry sectors such as manufacturing and distribution.

The next major model to emerge was Henri Fayol’s Management Theories. In the early 20^th century Henri Fayol became known for his Administrative Theory, which includes these two components:

1. The 5 Functions of Management

• Planning: Identifying and agreeing on the desired result and the action, stages, and methods to achieve it.
• Organising: Providing everything necessary to carry out the plan of action, including physical and human resources.
• Command: Getting the optimum return from employees in the interest of the business.
• Coordination: Ensuring everyone understands their responsibilities, the available resources, and the agreed activities, and works together to achieve the goals.
• Control: Verifying that everything happens in conformity with the plan, the instructions are given, and the principles agreed upon.

Fayol’s Five Functions are recognised worldwide as an important management framework. His Administrative Theory also included:

2. The 14 Principles of Management

Fayol argued that a company’s soundness and good working order depend on 14 principles:

1. Division of work and specialisation
2. Authority and responsibility
3. Discipline, agreement, and obedience
4. Consistency of command
5. Unity of direction
6. Subordination of individuals’ interests to the interests of the business
7. Fair remuneration
8. Centralisation of decisions, to achieve consistency of command
9. Line of authority
10. Order
11. Equity
12. Stability of tenure
13. Initiative
14. Esprit de corps

Today, leaders and managers place importance on diversity, equity and inclusivity, emotional intelligence, and employee experience. But equity, initiative, and esprit de corps feature in Fayot’s list, confirming these principles were on his radar too. 

Lewin’s 3 Leadership Styles

The next major model came in 1939 when Dr Kurt Lewin Identified these leadership styles:

• Authoritative or Autocratic
• Democratic
• Laissez-faire

Each of these has advantages and disadvantages:

Authoritative Leaders

They deliver streamlined work that improves efficiency and productivity. They set firm deadlines and have clear expectations. This is ideal in a crisis, or when making last-minute decisions. It allows fewer misunderstandings and directions. But such leaders often have a limited perspective and won’t listen to other ideas. People can feel undervalued and resent them.

Democratic Leaders

Also known as participative, these leaders encourage the free exchange of ideas among the team and rely on every member contributing. Each team member shares the freedoms and responsibilities of leadership to an extent. BUT decisions may not be made quickly, especially in a crisis, and people may not pull their weight. It’s seen as an ideal scenario in many businesses. But changing working habits and decentralised teams make this style more difficult. It calls for spontaneous, open, and candid communication, which can be challenging with remote working and virtual teams.

Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire or deligative leaders are ‘hands-off.’ They assign work and general direction but aren’t involved in day-to-day tasks. Employees are left to decide the best way to fulfil their responsibilities. Laissez-faire leaders put much faith in the individual. That’s fine if team members are competent and committed. However, newcomers may find it hard adapting, and not appreciate who’s really in charge. Laissez-faire managers trust people to remain self-motivated, on-task, and accountable. If problems arise, they offer direction, BUT this may only happen when requested.

Shifts in Thinking after WW2 Changed How People See Management and Leadership

In the 1950s Douglas McGregor published his Theory X and Theory Y, modelling a more nuanced approach to managing people. Theory X confirmed the importance of heightened supervision and external rewards. Meanwhile, Theory Y highlighted the motivating power of job satisfaction and encouraging workers to approach tasks without direct supervision.

The ideas behind today’s modern management theory were formulated a bit later, in the 1960s. Modern management theory’s goal is maximising productivity which is the same as classical management theory. However, it puts importance on doing so with empathy and creating a rewarding employee experience. In this model, people flourish when they feel valued as team members.  Modern management theory recognises that individuals work for different reasons, including achieving satisfaction, happiness, and desired lifestyles. For maximum productivity, leaders and managers need to understand individual employees’ mindsets, as modelled in Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. We’ll look at Vroom’s theory later.

Get a Handle On This – Situational Management, and Other Useful Leadership Styles

Successful leaders and managers have always reacted to changing situations. However, formal thinking about Contingency and Situational Approaches developed significantly in the 1960s and 70s. Contingency theory recognises that a leader’s success in particular circumstances will depend on the effectiveness of the style they adopt. We remember Churchill and Gandhi all these years later because what they did WORKED. Leaders in smaller companies have more flexibility and freedom to make changes. In larger companies, situational leadership needs to come from the top, or the leadership shadow may block the initiative.

Here are some more leadership styles, which have been refined since the 1960s.

1. Transformational leadership:

Involves developing a compelling vision and rallying your team. These leaders recognise the need for change. They encourage team members to transform and evolve, personally and professionally. Transformational leaders create unity, develop bonds, create energy, and instil passion. They focus on the future, on change, and on people. We’ll look at change management models in a moment.

2. Transactional leadership:

These leaders are skilled at sustaining stability and ensuring the existing processes work smoothly. They’re focused on structure, tasks, and goals. Transactional leadership assumes successful teams need firm direction and clear rewards, field sales forces being a classic example. Habitually transactional leaders will likely feel uncomfortable navigating uncertainty, and being situational and flexible. But transactional leadership has its place.

3. Charismatic leadership:

This style’s success requires more than personal magnetism. Bosses with personal charisma are attractive but need a mix of authoritative, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership to back it up.

And this last style has become more important since Covid, with working from home and hybrid working:

4. Virtual leadership:

This leadership type is particularly relevant in leading people in remote locations. Zoom, Teams and the rest all help. But virtual leaders rely heavily on email and phone conversations, with body language invisible to the listener. Besides finding appropriate leadership styles for different individuals, virtual leaders also need great communication skills, particularly active listening.

Which of These is The Best Leadership Model?

Given competent and committed employees, democratic leadership is one of the most effective leadership styles. It fosters individuals’ sense of ownership in their work. Democratic leadership also allows lower-level employees to develop leadership abilities.

The Blake Mouton Grid – What Sort of Boss are You?

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton published the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid in 1985. This weighs leaders’ and managers’ concern for people, rated 1-9, against their concern for production. Here are some common profiles:

1.1 – Impoverished Management:

This person scores low on both counts. They don’t have much regard for individual employees or their work. The business will suffer if motivation hits bottom and good work isn’t produced.

1.9 – Task Management:

This leader is more concerned with the work than their people. Managers solely focused on tasks can end up with an unhappy workforce, poor work culture and high staff turnover.

1.9 – Country Club:

These people have a high focus on people, but little emphasis on production levels. They’re caring bosses, but important work can fall behind.

5.5 – Middle of The Road:

They consider their employees’ well-being but switch focus between people and production.

9.1 – Authority-Compliance Management:

These bosses follow McGregor’s Theory X and see their subordinates’ needs as unimportant.

9.9 – Team Management:

This person pays attention to both their production and their team and motivates them to produce great results.

Why Do People Behave As They Do? – Behavioural Models to Consider

1. David Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

This theory outlines 5 components of EQ, that leaders and managers need to develop:

• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Motivation
• Empathy
• Social skills

2. Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

This recognises that effort, performance, and engagement intersect in motivation.  People need to believe their effort and performance will be recognised and rewarded. This is key to positive work cultures and staff retention.

Life Doesn’t Stay Still! Change Management Models Help Anticipate How Events Affect People

These models help businesses manage people compassionately as circumstances change:

1. Scotter and Jaffe’s Change Model describe the psychological process of change in a similar way to grief: denial-resistance-exploration-commitment
2. David Rock’s SCARF model shows individuals’ acceptance of change depends on

• Status
• Certainty
• Autonomy
• Resistedness
• Fairness

3. Dr Kurt Lewin’s Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model sees leaders ‘unfreezing’ their people about the need for a change, then ‘refreezing’ it as the status quo.

4. Jeff Hiatt’s ‘AKDAR’ acronym models 5 outcomes necessary for a successful change:

• Awareness of the need.
• Desire to support it
• Knowledge of how to do it.
• Ability to demonstrate the skills and behaviours it needs.
• Reinforcement to make it stick.

5. Bruce Tuchman’s model describes how teams come together:

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning

You can read more in our change management models article.

AND FINALLY: Follow These Famous Models, and Lead by Example

Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post founder and Editor in Chief, is a transformational leader. She has established a work environment that creates satisfied employees, including mindfulness practice and sleep pods, to rest when they’re tired.

Sir Richard Branson is another famous business figure showing outstanding transformational leadership in taking his business in new directions. He is also one of Britain’s best-known charismatic leaders. His entrepreneurial spirit has inspired generations of businesspeople to take risks and realise their vision.

In technology, product quality and customer acceptance are paramount. Bill Gates has always focused on strict control of Microsoft’s production processes. In Microsoft’s growth stages, he selected dedicated, hard-working employees to match his transactional leadership style.

Finally, in servant leadership leaders still lead but in the service of their followers. The late Queen Elizabeth 2 was crowned in her 20s and continued into her 90s. As Britain’s monarch, the Queen was continually reviving the nation’s esprit de corps, one of the 14 Principles of Leadership in Henri Fayol’s Management Theories. Her strength of character in dealing with crises reminds us she was also a great situational leader.

As we’ve said from the start, no single model of management or leadership will be suitable all the time. But learn about the different models and when to use them, and you’ll be a role model in every situation.