Management styles

I’m so glad to see all of you here today and listening my speech. Hope you will enjoy it. If you have some questions during the speech, I’m glad to answer them at the end.

By the way, the topic of my today’s speech is management styles, to put it more preciously [ˈpreʃəs]?, international management styles. I will start from giving definition to this phrase and then I’ll tell few words about most important processes, connected with my topic, for instance, types of management styles, their characteristics and nations they are peculiar to [piˈkju:liə](свойственны).

From the beginning I should say that there are different gradations(деление,градация,ступени) of the management styles, but I will speak about the most common one, which include autocratic, democratic, cons’ultative and laissez-faire [ˌleiseiˈfεə] невмешательство management styles.

An Autocratic style means that the manager makes decisions unilaterally [ˌju:niˈlæt(ə)r(ə)li](односторонне), and without much regard for subordinates səˈbɔ: (без учета подчиненных). As a result, decisions will reflect(отражать) the opinions and personality of the manager; this in turn(в свою очередь) can project an image of a confident, well managed business. On the other hand, subordinates may become overly dependent upon the leaders and more supervision(надзор,контроль) may be needed.

There are two types of autocratic leaders:

• the Directive Autocrat makes decisions unilaterally and closely supervises subordinates;
• the Permissive(дозволяющий; позволяющий) Autocrat makes decisions unilaterally, but gives subordinates latitude [ˈlætitju:d](свобода,самостоятельн) in carrying out their work.

However this type of management style can decrease motivation and increase staff turnover(утечка персонала) because staff are not consulted and do not feel valued.

A democratic manager delegates authority to his/her staff, giving them responsibility to complete the task given to them (also known as empowerment(расширение прав и возможн)). Staff will complete the tasks using their own work methods[ˈmeθəd]. However, the task must be completed on time. Employees are involved in decision making giving them a sense of belonging [biˈlɔŋiŋ] (принадлежности) and motivating individuals. Because staff feels a sense of belonging and are motivated the quality of decision making and work also improves. Although popular in business today, a democratic management style can slow(замедлить) decision making down because staff needs to be consulted. Also some employees may take advantage of the fact that their manager is democratic by not working to their full potential(полная сила) and allowing other group members to 'carry' them.

A consultative management style can be viewed as a combination of the above two. The manager will ask views and opinions from their staff, allowing them to feel involved but will ultimately make the final decision.

A laissez faire manager sets the tasks and gives staff complete freedom to complete the task as they see fit. There is minimal involvement(участие) from the manager. The manager however does not sit and watch them work! He or she is there to coach(давать указания) or answer questions, supply information if required. There are benefits; staff again is developed to take responsibility which may lead to improved motivation. However with little direct guidance [ˈgaid(ə)n(t)s](руков-во) from the manager staff may begin to feel lost and not reach the goals originally set within the time frame.

Autocratic management style is typical for the Asian countries, like China and Japan, while democratic style is usually used by American companies, along with lasses- faire style. Consultative managing is peculiar to European countries.

Talking about peculiarities of management styles to Asian or European nations I must mention that business styles in this case differ too. Different international business styles take in account the national characteristics of business people, their culture, language and so on. That’s why it’s so useful to have knowledge about distinguishing [diˈstiŋgwiʃiŋ](отличия,хар-ка) features [ˈfi:ʧə] of nations.

At the end of my work I would like to reset the main points of my speech……… I would like to say that selecting the correct management style may lead to greater motivation and productivity from your staff. However, it is not as easy as just 'picking' a style. Manager’s personalities and characteristics of nationality will influence the type of style adopted.

Thank you all for being here today. If you have some questions, I will be happy to answer them