MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Modes of management - styles
a managerial input into the job that they are doing. (Interviewee
C)
The concept has taken root amongst some who have experienced it, in
that it is said to be consonant with core values:-
So these people put this course on and we looked at this
concept of Emotional Intelligence. This was deemed to be the
approach that we ought to adopt in terms of our management
style. I mean, I am very sympathetic towards having that sort of
approach. We are going to go with our values, aren't we?
(Interviewee O)
Several other managers mentioned these courses, commenting that
the activities in which they engaged had revealed that they were on the
‘soft’ side when dealing with their staff – a view which was in fact
supported by several managers whether they mentioned the courses or
not:-
We had an interesting management training course and we were
all asked to identify our management styles by doing one of
these questionnaires and, interestingly but not surprisingly,
nearly everybody came out, I can't remember that it was like
"supporter/trainer" style and virtually nobody in the room had the
"directional" style………And I do think there is a sort of fear
factor almost at the directional style (Interviewee L)
We've had some training and started to identify what we think
the kind of core management standards should be, which is a
good start, and I think that in the training it was basically
established that we were all a bit too soft, which I think is a fair
criticism. We all ought to kind of buck our ideas up a bit and be
a bit firmer about what we expect from people. (Interviewee J)
Despite the self-criticism, this manager seems to be clear about her
own approach which seems more rounded than she admits to:-
My management style is (let me get the right words here) -- I
think I am a good manager. I think I'm inclusive, I work very
closely with my immediate managers that work for me. I think
it's important we have a strong managerial team within the
department. I have an open door policy. I have very good
relationships with the individual members of staff. I'm a great
believer in enabling and encouraging. I like to think that a lot of
staff here work beyond their grade and beyond their pay
because at the end of the day it's better for them and it's more
fun to be doing more demanding work and so I'm a great
believer in pushing them along and encouraging them and hope
for the one day they will get their just rewards. What else? We
have rules. Yes, I'm not kind of laissez-faire, I won't intervene.
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