Introduction
The influence of managerial style on employee behavior is manifested in a number of fashions including the leadership styles adopted by managers in the management of their employees. The behavior of employees significantly affects their conduct, attitudes and interactions with customers when in essence this behavior is largely dictated by the management style of top executives within the organization.
A number of leadership styles can be adopted in the running of organizations; a leadership style refers to the methodology and approach adopted by management in the provision of organizational direction, implementation of set targets and motivation of the human capital. Lewin, (1939)
Autocracy
In the running of day today matters within the organization, management may be autocratic or authoritarian, this management style has been misused by some managers (especially the general manager in the second resort) to mean ordering people around or bossing employees around and this has got absolutely no place in the contemporary leader’s repertoire. It may be likened to the phrase “I want you to…..” It finds application in instances when the management informs employees on what is to be done. Adler et al (2008)
The most appropriate situation to use this style is perhaps when the employees have all the requisite information at their disposal on how they want a particular task executed and there is minimal time to execute this task. This approach should only be used in rare occasions because if management wants to influence and inculcate higher levels of commitment and motivation, then the democratic or participative style should be applied.
The authoritarian style is the one applied by the general manager of the second resort visited by the researcher in Fiji. In this resort, he was found screaming instructions to the workers and the first impression was that the manager was overbearing on the employees and dictatorial.
Instead of motivating the employees in his resort, he keeps complaining and whining about them calling them lazy and reprimanding them in public. He blames their culture for failing to inculcate desirable work values in them and blames everything around him including what he considers an odd and impossible system of owning land around the country. This also caused him to be at odds with the local chief.
The effect of this leadership style is seen clearly when the researcher (a customer in the resort) leaves with less enthusiasm having sampled a paltry 23 bulas out of the possible 41.
Asked about his future plans, the manager is quick to discount any involvement of the locals in improving performance and instead recommends that he intends to bring in hired expatriates from Auckland in New Zealand to teach the locals on how best to be hospitable.
His mentality of blaming the local culture is mistaken because in the previous resort visited by the researcher, employees were very pleasant to customers and highly motivated and this was as a result of their hospitable culture (the Fijian culture).
Democracy
The democratic approach by contrast is the one that involves both the leader and the employees in the decision making process. Hofstede (1977) It can be represented by the phrase “lets work together to solve this…..” this is what is being applied by the general manager in the first Fijian resort.
In this resort, an impressive 39 bulas (greetings) were sampled out of the possible 41 and this indicated a labour force that is not only highly motivated but also one with high levels of job satisfaction, this pleasantness translates directly in the way employees treat their customers as was experienced by the researcher.
The use of this management style does not show weaknesses but instead builds a strong rapport and understanding between the employees and their leader. Intelligent managers are able to understand that they do not have all solutions to the organization’s problems, they may have part of the solution but the employees (being competent and skillful) have the other solutions.
In order to tap into their resourcefulness therefore, the manager in the first resort works in close collaboration with his employees and instead of being quick to introduce new ideas sees that the existing ideas are working well and therefore builds on them. In his own words, he has done absolutely nothing to change the employees natural hospitality rather he has taken advantage of the available local assets that he found in their traditional culture and village life.
Reference List
Adler, N., & Gundersen A. (2008).International dimensions of organizational behavior. Mason, OH:Thomson.
Hofstede, G. (1977). Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lewin, K., LIippit, R. and White, R.K. (1939). “Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates.” Journal of Social Psychology, Vol.10, 271-301