MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Modes of management - styles
Fairly relaxed. I don't like confrontation either and fortunately I
don't have it because my staff are very good. So I can afford to
be relaxed. (Interviewee K)
Laid-back, I think. I like to give people responsibility for their
own actions. I let them get on and do things. They do need
support and I try giving them that support. The management
style is laid-back and frustrating. (Interviewee D)
I see myself as a facilitator (Interviewee O)
Relaxed. Sometimes too relaxed and perhaps guiding as much
as anything. I very rarely get to the stage where I say "you will
do this". That's not my way of doing things. It is through leading
and actually doing what they are doing. I'm really not a hands off
manager, I am a hands on manager. Sometimes too much. I
know I don't delegate enough but that's improving. (Interviewee
B)
A more deliberately people centred style is described by one manager,
but with a harder edge:-
Well, all managers like to think that they are consensual. I like
people to feel that they have had an opportunity to influence the
decision before it's made but once the decision is made, I do
expect them to get on with it with the minimum of whingeing and
I don't have a lot of sympathy for whingeing (Interviewee F)
There seem to be gradations of firmness in the approach to managing
people. This ranges from a style where the manager lays down clearly
what he expects:-
I think there are different styles. I know that certain of my
colleagues believe in a more belligerent form of management. I
believe that we are employing people who have a certain skill
set. I believe that I think it is important to understand the skills
and abilities of individuals and basically let them get on and do
their job and then to provide a support mechanism. I have not, I
don't issue directives to the staff who work with me in my
section. There is an understanding of what is required of them
and where problems arise (and problems invariably do) we
resolve them as quickly as we possibly can…..I believe that the
style and the approach to management that I adopt is about
problem resolution but within the parameters of -- there is a job
that needs to be done and I expect it to be done. (Interviewee L)
to one in which the objective is avoiding confrontation:-
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