AQA A level Business: Managers, Leadership and Decision-Making

• Co-Ordinate


  The management task of ensuring that staff carrying out different parts of a project are all working to the same time schedule and quality standards.
• Management


  Planningorganisingdirectingcontrolling all or part of a business enterprise.
• Leadership

  ruling, guiding and inspiring other people within an organisation in pursuit of agreed objectives.
• What are Mintzberg's managerial roles?

  Ten roles performed by manager within business
• Mintzberg's Managerial Role categories

  Interpersonal rolesInformational rolesDecisional roles
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Table

  
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Interpersonal roles category


  The roles in this category involve managing through other people.Roles include:FigureheadLeaderLiason
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Figurehead


  the interpersonal role managers play when they perform ceremonial duties like greeting company visitors, speaking at the opening of a new facility, or representing the company at a community luncheon to support local charities.
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Leader


  the interpersonal role managers play when they create and maintain an effective environment and motivate
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Liaison


  the interpersonal role managers play when they communicate with internal and external contacts.
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Informational roles category


  The roles in this category involve processing information.Roles include:MonitorDisseminatorSpokesperson
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Monitor


  the informational role managers play when they scan their environment for information
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Disseminator


  the informational role managers play when they pass on valuable information to others in the organisation.
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Spokesperson


  the informational role managers play when they transmit information about the organisation and its goals to the people outside it.
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Decisional roles category

  The roles in this category use information to take decisions Roles include:EntrepreneurDisturbance handlerResource allocatorNegotiator
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Entrepreneur

  the decisional role managers play when they plan and initiate change within a business organisation
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Disturbance handler

  the decisional role managers play when they deal with the unexpected and with crisesin the case of disputes, these managers will take control and attempt to solve them.
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Resource allocator

  the decisional role managers play when they take on decisions about the most effective use of an organisations resources
• Mintzberg's Managerial Roles: Negotiator

  the decisional role managers play when they engage in important negotiations within and outside the business
• Subordinates


  Those working for a manager and therefore under his/her command
• Delegation

  the assignment of new or additional responsibilities to a subordinate
• Empowerment


  providing subordinates with the means to exercise power or control over their working lives.
• Decentralisation


  entails passing authority down from the centre of an organisation to those working elsewhere in the business
• Autocratic Leadership


  When the boss keeps all key decisions to him/herself, and gives orders, rather than power to subordinates.
• Charismatic Leadership


  A leader whose dynamic/magnetic personality makes people willing to follow.
• Democratic Leadership


  This implies empowering people. That is, delegating full power over the design and execution of substantial tasks.
• Laissez-Faire Leadership


  This means allowing people to get on with things themselves, but without the co-ordination and control implicit within democratic leadership.
• Paternalistic Leadership


  This means 'fatherly'. That is, the boss treats staff as part of the family. Typically this shows through consultation, but with decision-making remaining at the top.
• Tannenbaum Schmidt Continuum


  An analytical tool to assess management style based on amount of authority delegated by managers

  
• Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid


  focuses on managers concern for production and concern for people, as well as combinations between the two extremes.

  
• Decision Making Process

  1. Setting objectives2. Gathering and interpreting information3. Selecting the chosen option4. Implementing the decision5. Reviewing
• Programmed decisions


  Decisions encountered and made before, having objectively correct answers, and solvable by using simple rules, policies, or numerical computations.
• Non-programmed decisions


  Nonroutine decision making that occurs in response to unusual, unpredictable opportunities and threats -require unique solutions
• Intuition


  Judgement made on qualitative criteria( perhaps experience and strength of market understanding, or perhaps little more than guesswork.)
• Short-Termism


  A widespread tendency within a business to focus on short-term results, probably at the cost of long-term success.
• Strategic Decision


  Decisions that is long-term, involves a major commitment or resources and are difficult to reverse
• Tactical Decision


  Decisions that are short-term, taken more regularly and involve fewer resources
• Expected Values


  Financial outcomes from a specific course of action adjusted to allow for the probability of it occurring.
• Net Gains/Losses


  Expected values of a course of action minus the costs associated with it.
• Probability


  The likelihood of something occurring