MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Modes of management - styles
of the strategic plan, they would all be involved in their
departmental plans. Different departments did it different ways.
For example, the two departments that I'm responsible for,
Personnel, which is a much smaller Department, and Finance
Department; the Personnel Department took themselves away
for a day in an office and I visited there for an hour and we just
had a sit down discussion around the table going, what is the
purpose of the of the Personnel Department in this building, do
we think we do that right, what changes do we think we will
make, how are we going to go about that and everybody had
their inputs-- not one dissenting voice, when we had done it that
way. (Interviewee N)
Another manager believes that listening to people is an important
component of management style:-
My philosophy as an individual has always been to try to take
everybody's point of view and then try to find a way forward
which is acceptable to all. (Interviewee M)
The point was made that there was a lot of diversity in approach:-
The range of managers now within this organisation is very, very
diverse. From people who are very conscious of having to
manage their staff, talking to them about employee
development, setting out what they see as their aims to people
who just see their management function as having to discipline
and hand out work (Interviewee J)
Some managers felt that the key issue was leading by example, getting
in early, not asking staff to do anything that they would not do. The
point was also made, consistent with the ‘fair and firm’ principle
mentioned earlier, that seeking consensus should not mean that one
shied away from difficult decisions:-
I can't believe that we actually allowed our staff to say that they
didn't want it (IIP). Which is another example of a quite pathetic
style of management. We confused the idea of sitting down and
talking things through with staff with the notion that -- oh, it's
workers control. And then we abandon our managerial
responsibilities.…………All this desire to think that we have got
to reach agreement, which normally I would agree with but I
think that once you signal that if you don't reach agreement you
will abandon it then you have abandoned your managerial
responsibilities. (Interviewee O)
There is, however, little overt explanation of the influences on
management style, whether based on trade union principles or not.
One attempt at explanation does refer to people’s characteristics and
why they imply a more consensual approach:-
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