The 5-Minute-Manager. Traditional Management

Traditional Management is the forerunner of today’s management practices that originated back in the Industrial Revolution, a period of great change in the way people worked.

In the early 1880s, new Cotton Mills began to spring up across Britain, with the workers in these factories needing to be organized and controlled. The form of control that emerged was called ‘command-and-control’, a term referring to keeping subordinates in line. This approach, based on the hierarchical and often brutal British military and naval traditions typically involved the development and implementation of strict rules of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour with harsh consequences for breaking the rules.

As these factories became more commonplace, substantial, and productive, this method of early management was viewed as essential and as such became commonplace. As it became widespread it became known as the Traditional Management style.

Over 100 years later, this style dominates the corporate management landscape and is still in use in strict hierarchical organisations such as the military and police. As a management style it has proven to be enormously successful, contributing substantially to global economic growth and the employment of millions. Just like its origins, it is good at making profits, but this has come at a high cost. The Traditional management style vests a lot of power in individual managers, allowing them to impose their own form of control, rules, and regulations just as long as they achieve business goals imposed on them from above. If not kept in check, this power can lead to abuse.

A senior executive or board holds all the power; they are in command and use their power and influence to lead. They appear at the top of the organisation chart. Below them are senior managers, then middle managers, with employees at the bottom. We call this an organisational hierarchy.” Source: The Four Functions of Management, Dr. Robert Lloyd and Dr. Wayne.

Traditional Management Behaviours

Traditional Management behaviours are aimed at producing a degree of predictability and order to consistently produce short-term results expected by various parties and stakeholders. (e.g., For customers always being on time, for stakeholders always being on budget.) At its most basic, management consists of five functions, these functions form part of the body of practices on how to be a successful Traditional manager.

Planning.

· Responding to direction set from above.

· Establishing purpose.

· Setting goals, objectives, and strategies.

· Executing plans, improving the present.

· Establishing a budget.

· Managing around constraints.

Organizing.

· Exercising control through authority and formal influence.

· Establishing or changing team activities.

· Making decisions.

· Solving problems.

· Scheduling.

· Designing the organization.

Staffing.

· Organizing and recruiting staff, providing structure.

· Controlling subordinates, directing, and coordinating.

· Managing discipline.

· Setting roles and responsibilities.

· Obtaining, allocating or releasing resources to deliver objectives (People, equipment, facilities).

· Performance management and appraisals.

· Succession planning.

Leading

· Focusing on things, looking inward.

· Doing things right, managing change.

· Using authority, avoiding conflict, acting responsibly.

· Reactive, minimizes risk, maintains stability.

· Maintains the status quo.

· Time management.

· Delegates.

Controlling.

· Collecting, analysing and reporting performance information.

· Identifying issues and taking corrective actions.

· Designing controls.

· Establishing procedures.

The problems of Traditional Management

The structure of the Traditional organization is like the military system, which is hierarchical, organized, and disciplined. The power flows vertically and downward, and the employees are organized by department and are managed according to a chain of command. Each department has its own rules; the department manager is responsible and reports to the senior manager above. Every employee strictly follows the business strategies and has their own job description and accountability to their superior making Traditional organizational structures fixed and rigid.

Because the Traditional organization has many layers of management, many people need time to weigh up and coordinate issues, it takes a long time to make decisions; therefore, many managers may feel their opinions are being ignored. Moreover, in terms of interpersonal communication, senior management messages easily get distorted as directives move through the traditional hierarchy. This is because each manager may interpret the words in different ways, by the time the message reaches employees, the message may be different from the original intention.

Furthermore, in terms of manager competence, in Traditional management models, authority is assigned to the position rather than the individual, which requires constant checking of the effectiveness of individuals in various positions to see if they have the actual ability to fulfil the job. In addition, Traditional management pays most of its attention to a company’s goals and objectives, emphasising increasing sales or profits to please the shareholders, which can lead the company to neglect social responsibilities and business sustainable development.

Traditional management is about control, rules, regulations, boundaries and the source of all new business and ways of working. Traditional managers can be blind to work and employment issues and slow to react to change. Regrettably, employees have learned how their managers act is what the path to success looks like, so they model it. Traditional management does not individualize the needs of subordinates or focus on their personal development. Traditional managers exchange things of value with subordinates to advance their own and their subordinates’ agendas. Traditional managers are influential because it is in the best interest of subordinates for them to do what the manager wants.

Traditional Management Styles (1880’s to 1970s)

1. Commanding style.

A commanding manager makes all the decisions and gives orders to his or her team. Tight control and follow-up combined with high clarity in rules, roles, and expectations are key elements of commanding leadership. This style can be efficient in low-skilled teams and when decisions must be made very quickly. This style can lead to micromanagement, which is detrimental to employee engagement, especially in highly skilled teams in complex environments. The commanding style is also known as coercive or directive leadership. This style is like autocratic leadership but with a foundational difference: it is meant to be applied rarely and controlled, whereas autocratic leadership is more of a permanent state and behaviour.

Advantages of the Commanding Leadership Style:

· Increased clarity on roles, expectations, and rules, beneficial for low-skill teams.

· Confidence and decisiveness, especially useful in times of crisis.

Disadvantages of the Commanding Management Style:

· High dependency on the leader, who also needs to know how to perform all jobs and tasks in detail.

· Morale, motivation, and engagement are low, and work climates can become toxic.

· Creativity and participation are minimal.

2. Autocratic style.

Autocratic is when the leader holds all the decision power and rarely consults others. Autocratic is unpopular, has many disadvantages, and leads to low engagement and sometimes to a toxic environment. Autocratic is useful in a crisis when control and fast decisions are crucial.

Advantages of the Autocratic Style:

· High clarity on structure, roles, and expectations.

· Quick decision-making and improved crisis handling.

· Can lead to increased productivity in low-skilled environments, at least temporarily.

Disadvantages of the Autocratic Style:

· There is a lack of empowerment in the team, which leads to low engagement and accountability.

· Too strong dependency on the leader; after all, if only the leader can make decisions, not much happens without the leader’s involvement.

· Intimidation, punishment, or threats are common ways of ensuring obedience. This is, of course, not sustainable and can lead to a toxic work climate.

3. Transactional style.

Transactional is built on a clear structure of reward and punishment for different performance levels. It is focused on results, efficiency, and performance rather than people and relationships. Transactional is often seen as the opposite of Transformational.

Advantages of the Transactional Style:

· There is a clear connection between performance and rewards.

· It can be very productive, especially regarding short-term results.

· Clear order, structure, and rules, enabling repetition and swift onboarding of new team members.

Disadvantages of the Transactional Style:

· The sole focus on performance can be demotivating and disengaging.

· Rewards have a limited impact on people’s performance; at some point, other factors start to matter more.

· The strict structure hampers creativity and innovation.

Contemporary Management Styles

Servant

Servant focuses on improving people, society, and organizations. In Servant, the leader serves others, which leads to strong ethics, and engaged, motivated employees. However, a Servant manager with too much focus on serving others can lose track of organizational goals and purpose. Servant was first defined in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf in an essay where he outlined that there were two types of leaders: Servant-First and Leader-First. The first type focuses on the success of others, and the second type cares more about themselves and their personal success. Servant stands out and is difficult to compare with the other styles.

Advantages:

· Participation and a common cause led to high engagement.

· Strong ethical behaviour.

Disadvantages:

· It does not work for all companies and organizations since an overarching cause is at the core of servant leadership.

· True servant leaders are challenging to find since they need to have a complete lack of ego.

· Business and organizational goals might be lost in the struggle for the long-term cause.

Democratic

Democratic builds on empowering team members to participate in decision-making, with a strive toward consensus. The engaging climate welcomes everyone’s opinions, leading to robust solutions. However, the democratic manager still has the final say on any decisions. This style is sometimes slow but generally very effective. The Democratic style was introduced in the 1930s as one of the three leadership behaviours used in the Kurt Lewin experiments in 1938. The Lewin model assumes a leader has one of the three behaviours, and there is no push for leaders switching styles depending on circumstances. (Laissez-faire and autocratic leadership) were the other two in the Lewin model.) Democratic is also included in the modern framework based on Emotional Intelligence, also referred to as the Goleman leadership styles

Advantages:

· Creativity and innovation are encouraged.

· Collaboration creates solid solutions for complex problems.

· Employee engagement is high.

· Team visions lead to high accountability.

Disadvantages:

· Collaborative decision-making is time-consuming.

· Productivity can temporarily decline when awaiting decisions.

· It does not work well in low skilled, inexperienced teams.

Coaching

Coaching focuses on improving employees to become better individuals and professionals with the leader as a coach. A Coaching manager can sacrifice initial performance for learning opportunities. Coaching is very effective in the long term but can be difficult and time-consuming.

Advantages:

· It leads to high engagement and low turnover within the team.

· It develops people to perform more and better in the future.

· Coaching builds empowerment and confidence in people.

Disadvantages:

· Coaching is difficult and time-consuming.

· Coaching requires commitment from both parties.

Transformational

Transformational creates substantial change for team members as well as organizations. Expectations, aspirations, perceptions, and values are transformed into something better. Transformational develops the team members and motivates and inspires them to reach extraordinary success. Transformational was first defined by James MacGregor Burns in the late 70s as part of Full Range Leadership. Bass and Avolio developed Transformational and the Full Range Leadership Model further in subsequent years.

Advantages:

· It is excellent for change management and growth.

· High transparency and strong communication build participation and engagement.

· The shared vision results in inspiration, motivation, and collaboration.

Disadvantages:

· Transformational Leadership can be very time consuming and long term.

· It does not work well without a strong change element or vision.

· Can result in too much risk-taking and overlooking short-term requirements.

Source: Carl Lindberg, A Handbook of Leadership Styles, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

High-Performance

A High-Performance Management style is a description of the way you think and act. It tells people what they should expect from you in any given situation. It is a personalised statement based on the work persona you want to project. It has characteristics consistent with the Team, Coaching, Servant, and Transformational styles and is comprised of four elements: - personality, strengths, Traditional and Transformational behaviours which are inexorably linked to each other. High-performance leaders develop teamwork, they know they need to spend time with their teams, talk to them, and understand them and what they care for individually. Developed by Russell Futcher and defined in the ‘High-Performance Leadership and Teams Model’ - 2018.

A High-Performance Management style motivates others to do more than they thought possible. Managers and leaders using this style set challenging expectations for team members, and typically teams achieve higher performance outcomes. Team members are managed as individuals, identifying, and developing their strengths. High-performance managers are supportive, provide mentoring and are role models who are respected and trusted.

Advantages:

· It is excellent for change management and growth.

· It builds and manages High-Performance Teams.

· It suits a leadership position.

· It significantly boosts self-confidence

Disadvantages:

· Implementing the Transformational qualities can be time consuming.

· It does not work well without a strong change element or vision.

· Can result in too much risk-taking and overlooking short-term requirements.

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