Participative and Affiliative Management Styles Research (Essay Sample)

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Participative and Affiliative Management Styles
In the daily operations of an organization, every employee has a critical role to play which is also replicated in making the organization achieve its goals and set objectives. However, the success of the organization which is determined by its efficiency and effectiveness in achieving its objectives is determined by how well the employees work as a synergy and towards the goals. Working as a unit and as a synergy is enabled by the manager who coordinates the employees towards a particular goal. In this regard, the manager plays a critical role in enhancing a good working and interpersonal relationship among employees by encouraging them and motivating them accordingly. In this essay, my encounter with the front office manager during y internship will be analyzed, giving specific emphasis being on his participative/ democratic and affiliative management style.
During my internship period, I was working with a hospitality firm where I was assigned duties in the front office department. Lianne was my front office manager; he was a welcoming individual with quite an open mind and a close touch with his subordinates. Most importantly, Lianne was open to new ideas and operated on an open door policy where he welcomed the participation of his subordinates in decision-making. He used to take the time to encourage us to feel equal to the task and never to shy away from giving personal opinion and suggestions during work interaction. On the other hand, Lianne always took the time to share with his junior staff members on the progress at work and possible areas where improvement was necessary.
Lianne used democratic management style in which he did not necessarily dwell on having the work done, but had a keen eye on enhancing team- working where every employee felt appreciated in the organization. In this style, having a well motivated and encouraged team of employees necessitates a good working environment where every employee is appreciated as an important success factor of the organization. This helped employees to become increasingly engaged, innovative, and creative in work thus leading to more customer satisfaction. On the other hand, it promotes responsible working where employees can own up to their actions. As such, they avoid working to appease the manager but instead work to fulfill the set objectives.
As a result, democratic leadership style employed by Lianne encouraged his subordinates to feel like a part of the organization thus encouraging them to work willingly and get more involved towards fulfilling decisions made. This is based on the fact that the employees would feel they have vested their interests in the organization since they are involved in decision-making. Consequently, this would considerably increase the employees' level of productivity and improve job satisfaction. On the other hand, participative management helped to the employees to feel empowered as their contributions to the organization and in decision-making was valued. This helped to minimize the level of competition among subordinates. It also encouraged cooperation among employees thus promoting the development of a welcoming organizational culture where every employee felt that what they do and say is valuable, meaningful, and matters.
On the other hand, Lianne used affiliative management style which was well engrained in his team-based culture and a very relaxed mode of leadership. As an affiliative leader, Lianne understood that the daily operations of the firm did not have many discrepancies as it considerably involved promoting good business relationships with customers. This mainly involves good communication and telephone skills, excellent interpersonal relations, and well-structured customer reception and maintenance services. As such, he strived to create harmony among employees as well as between the employees and the management. The good interpersonal relationship was his guiding principle at work, and he constantly encouraged employees to put their differences apart to avoid conflict of interests and interpersonal...