2.3 Management
- Syllabus
- 9609–2026–2027
- Topic
- 2.3
- Level
- AS
Learning objectives
Managers combine functions, roles, styles and assumptions to deliver performance
| Traditional function | Management work |
|---|---|
| Planning | Set objectives, forecast and choose actions/resources/timing |
| Organising | Arrange tasks, people, authority and other resources |
| Directing | Lead, communicate and motivate action toward objectives |
| Controlling | Set standards, measure actual performance, compare and correct |
| Lens | Main roles | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Fayol | Planning, organising, commanding/directing, coordinating and controlling | A functional cycle for turning objectives into organised action and correction |
| Mintzberg interpersonal | Figurehead, leader, liaison | Relationships, representation and motivation |
| Mintzberg informational | Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson | Gather, share and communicate information |
| Mintzberg decisional | Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator | Change, crisis response, priorities and bargaining |
| Style | Decision/authority pattern | Likely strength | Likely limitation / suitable condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autocratic | Manager decides and closely directs | Fast, clear, useful in crisis/inexperience/high risk | Low voice/trust, stress, weak creativity and morale |
| Democratic | Employees contribute before decisions | Better information, ownership, motivation and retention | Slower; conflict or diluted accountability; useful with experienced staff |
| Laissez-faire | Skilled employees receive wide autonomy | Creativity, speed near expertise and ownership | Drift, inconsistent standards or poor coordination without capable teams |
| Paternalistic | Manager decides while seeking employees' welfare, like a parent | Security, loyalty and coordinated direction | Dependency, limited genuine voice and manager may misjudge needs |
| Assumption | Manager response | Conditional consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Theory X: employees may dislike work, avoid responsibility and need external control/reward | Close supervision, clear rules/targets and often autocratic direction | Clarity can help new/inexperienced staff or crises and reduce decision stress; can create mistrust, low creativity and dependence |
| Theory Y: employees can find work natural, self-direct, seek responsibility and be creative when committed | Participation, delegation, empowerment and development | Can unlock ideas and intrinsic motivation; fails if capability, information, desire or controls are insufficient |
Managers contribute by setting direction, designing structures/processes, allocating scarce resources, recruiting/developing people, creating culture, coordinating specialists, controlling finance/quality and communicating with stakeholders. These can improve productivity, service, customer/patient satisfaction, cost control, innovation and sustainability—or damage them when decisions are bureaucratic, uninformed or incompetent.
No style or assumption is universally best. Judge urgency, risk, workforce skill/experience, task complexity, information location, organisational culture and need for consistency or creativity. In a hospital, managers and medical specialists are interdependent: resources and systems enable clinical expertise, while management without professional evidence can obstruct care.