Consultative Management A consultative management style is one where the manager consults with staff before making the decision. COMDAC Control - control and authority, while centralised, is more employee-based and less centralised than the autocratic and persuasive styles. Orientation - task achievement is still an important driving factor but is now being balanced with an understanding of the importance of the 'people' factor. Motivation - a reasonable level of employee involvement is wanted in decision making, which results in employees becoming more motivated and wanting to perform at their best Decision-making - decision making, while centralised with the manager, occurs after consultation with employees. Attitude - it places value on the importance of the employees' contribution to the overall performance of the organisation. Communication - communication is two-way, being top-down by management to subordinates, and upwards from the subordinate to management when their opinion and feedback is sought. A participative management style is one where the manager unites with staff to make decisions together. COMDAC Control - decentralised - teams, departments, etc set their own objectives to meet corporate objectives. (Employee-centred) Orientation - orientation or focus is towards people. If the employees are satisfied and productive, this will result in an increase in productivity. Motivation - a belief that employees are motivated by satisfying a broad range of needs. Decision-making - decision making is decentralised, with management and employees sharing in decision-making and problem-solving tasks. Attitude - it places value on employee contribution to organisational performance. Communication - communication is two-way, being top-down from management to subordinates, and upwards from the subordinates to management when their opinion and feedback is sought. 1.17 Exercise 6. For the following situations, suggest whether the consultative or participative style is being used, and explain why you made your choice. a. Lisa is the project manager of a very experienced team of programmers. She has worked with her team to make all the decisions about how to design, develop and implement new software applications. A consultative style is being used because Lisa consults with her team and make all the decisions. b. Greg is the production manager for a large manufacturing company. He holds a meeting to seek the opinion of his staff about introducing a direct-marketing system.
A participative style is being used because Greg holds a meeting and unites with staff to make decisions together. 7. Explain the difference between the consultative management style and the participative management style. The difference between the consultative management style and the participative management style is that consultative management, the manager gets staff opinion before making the decision. While the participative management style is where the manager works together with the staff to make decisions. 8. Petrea is the HR manager at Real Technologies Ltd. She uses the participative management style. Identify two characteristics of this management style and explain one advantage and one disadvantage of using this style. Two characteristics of this management style are the manager consults with employees. Participative managers recognise the strengths and