Week 10 · Chapter

Chapter 10 — Leading the Work: Management & Leadership

Introduction to Business Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~35–45 minutes · Objective 5 (apply the core organizational-structure concepts — the organization chart, line and staff, span of control, centralization, and tall vs. flat — and the four functions of management, the types of planning, the leadership styles, and the managerial skills to an organization at two sizes), Objective 2 (explain how entrepreneurs turn an idea into a funded small business — a business-plan outline in the SBA's traditional format, an industry analysis with the five competitive forces, and a start-up funding plan — and compare the forms of business ownership, franchising, and mergers for that venture) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slides, the tutorial, and the quiz all build on it.

In plain language

When one person runs a coffee cart alone, that person does everything. When the business grows to two carts and seven people, someone has to decide where it is going, who does what, how to keep people pulling together, and whether the work is on track. That job is management (directing an organization's people, money, and materials toward its goals). Part of it is leadership (influencing people to work toward a goal). This week you will learn the four functions of management, the kinds of plans a business makes, three ways a leader can make decisions, and the skills a manager needs at each level.

Why you already care about this

Think about the best shift supervisor, coach, or group-project leader you have had. Maybe they made a clear plan, made sure everyone knew their part, kept the team's spirits up, and noticed early when something slipped. Now think about the worst one. The difference was probably not how hard they worked. It was how they managed and how they led.

The coffee cart is about to need both. In Week 8 you drew its organization chart at two sizes: 2 people on 2 levels at one cart, and 7 people on 3 levels at two carts. A chart shows who reports to whom. It does not say who decides where the second cart parks, who covers a barista who calls in sick, or who notices that too many drinks are being poured out. Those are management questions, and this chapter answers them.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

define management and apply its four functions, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, to a business at two sizes;
sort a plan as strategic, tactical, operational, or contingency planning, and write a mission statement and objectives;
count the people, levels, and spans of control a plan organizes;
compare the autocratic, participative, and free-rein leadership styles and match one to a situation;
tell management from leadership;
describe controlling as setting a standard, measuring, comparing, and correcting;
explain the technical, human, and conceptual skills and how their mix shifts with a manager's level.

Carry this line with you: managing runs the work; leading moves the people — you need both.

Where we are

Already covered: Week 1, The Idea and Its Environment, built the cart's SWOT, with one espresso machine as a weakness; Week 3, From Idea to Plan: Entrepreneurship, Small Business & the Business Plan, outlined the cart's business plan; Week 5, What the Business Owes: Ethics & Social Responsibility, named leadership by example; Week 7, Who Buys and at What Price: Marketing, Products & Pricing, found the break-even; Week 8, Midterm Review & the Growth Question, drew the cart's organization chart at one cart and at two.
This week: the four functions of management applied to the growing cart; the types of planning, a mission statement, and objectives; the three leadership styles; management versus leadership; controlling with a standard; and the managerial skills by level.
How they connect: Week 8 drew the chart that shows who reports to whom; this week puts people into those boxes and asks how they plan, organize, lead, and check the work.
Where we're going next: Week 11, Hiring and the Law: Human Resources & Labor Relations, asks how a business finds and hires the people the chart needs, within the law.

Three earlier weeks matter most here. In Week 8 you met the organization chart, a diagram of who reports to whom, and the span of control, the number of people who report directly to one manager. At two carts the owner is over two cart leads, and each lead is over two part-time baristas. In Week 7 you found the cart's break-even: 12,000 drinks a year, which is 48 drinks a day over 250 operating days. In Week 3 you outlined the cart's business plan in the SBA's traditional format. All three return this week.

1. Name the job: management and its four functions

Picture the cart's owner on the evening the second cart is approved. A list starts to form. Where will the new cart park? Who will run it? How will the owner keep both carts making the same drink the same way? How will anyone know if the new cart is doing well? As you read the list, notice that every item belongs to one of four kinds of work.

Management is the work of directing an organization's people, money, and materials toward its goals, conventionally taught as four functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

The four functions of management are a classroom model that sorts a manager's work into planning, organizing, leading, and controlling; real managers move among all four through the day.

Planning is the management function of deciding what an organization wants to achieve and how it will get there, from long-range goals to the next day's schedule.
Organizing is the management function of arranging people, positions, and resources so the work in the plan can get done, including who reports to whom.
Leading is the management function of guiding and influencing people so they work toward the organization's goals.
Controlling is the management function of setting a standard, measuring results, comparing the two, and correcting course when a result misses its target.

Worked example — the four functions on the growing cart. The cart is illustrative, constructed for this course, and this example uses only the counts from Week 8's chart.

Planning: the owner plans the second cart, deciding to open it and where it will sell.
Organizing: the owner organizes the morning shift across two carts, with one cart lead and two baristas at each.
Leading: the owner leads the 2 cart leads, who in turn lead their baristas.
Controlling: each cart lead keeps a daily count of drinks poured out, and the owner compares it with a standard.

In words: the same owner who once ran one cart alone now spends the day moving among four kinds of work, and each kind has its own question: where are we going, who does what, how do we keep people pulling together, and are we on track?

Misconception check. Students often think the four functions happen in order, once: plan in the spring, organize in the summer, and so on. That is tempting, because the list reads like a recipe. But the model is a way of sorting work, not a timetable. On one morning a cart lead may plan the next day's order, organize a break, lead a new barista, and control the waste count. The cure is to sort each task by its question, not by the clock.

Memory hook: plan, organize, lead, control — all four, every day.

2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives

You make plans of different sizes, and so does a business. Opening a second cart is a decision the owner will live with for years. Tomorrow's shift schedule matters only until tomorrow. Both are plans, but they answer different questions and cover different stretches of time.

The four types of planning differ by how far ahead they look and how much of the business they cover.

Strategic planning is long-range planning, usually one to five years ahead, that sets the direction of the whole organization, such as deciding to open a second location.
Tactical planning is planning for less than a year that turns a strategic plan into specific steps for one part of the organization, such as a department or a single site.
Operational planning is day-to-day planning that sets the work for the next shift or the next few days, such as a staff schedule or a supply order.
Contingency planning is planning for what an organization will do if something goes wrong or a situation changes, such as a key machine breaking down.

Worked example — the cart's four plans. The cart's plans are illustrative, and the example uses one figure from the plan.

Strategic: open a second cart, a whole-business decision that looks one to five years ahead. The second cart costs 20,000 dollars, the same as the first cart and its equipment. How to pay for it waits for Week 14.
Tactical: plan the second cart's first season, under a year, covering one part of the business: its menu and the spots where it will park.
Operational: set the shift schedule for the next morning at each cart.
Contingency: decide what happens if a cart's one espresso machine breaks down mid-rush, the weakness from Week 1's SWOT; for example, which drinks can still be sold and who calls for the repair.

In words: the cart runs four plans at once, from the five-year decision to open a second cart down to tomorrow's schedule, plus a what-if plan for its weakest spot.

Every plan needs an aim to serve. That is the job of a mission statement and objectives.

A mission statement is a short statement of what an organization does, whom it serves, and why, which its plans and objectives are meant to serve.
An objective is a specific result an organization means to reach by a set time, written so that someone can later check whether it was reached.

Worked example — two missions, two sets of objectives. Both organizations are illustrative, and the wording is written for this course.

The coffee cart's mission: "Serve fresh, made-to-order espresso drinks to people where they work and shop."
Two of its objectives: sell at least 12,000 drinks at the first cart this year, its break-even; and open a second cart, staffed by a cart lead and two baristas, within five years.
A community food bank's mission: "Make sure no family in our town goes without groceries."
One of its objectives: add one more distribution day each week by the end of the year.

In words: the mission says what each organization is for, and each objective names a result someone can check later.

These pieces tie back to Week 3. The traditional business plan you outlined there has sections from the executive summary to the financial projections. A mission statement and objectives give every one of those sections the same aim, so the plan reads as one argument, not eight separate pages.

Misconception check. Students often think a plan is one kind of document, the business plan, written once and filed. That is tempting, because Week 3 spent a whole week on that one plan. But the cart also needs a tactical plan for the new cart's first season, an operational plan for tomorrow, and a contingency plan for a broken machine. The cure is to ask two questions of any plan: how far ahead does it look, and how much of the business does it cover?

Pause and try this. Choose one: (a) write a one-sentence mission statement for a club, team, or workplace you know, then one objective that someone could check in a year; or (b) name one contingency plan you have made in your own life, and say what it protected you from.

Memory hook: years, months, tomorrow, what if — not one plan, but four.

3. Organize the people: two carts, seven people, three levels

In Week 8 you drew the chart. Now picture the people in it early on a busy morning. Two carts are opening in two places. Each one needs someone in charge, someone at the counter, and someone at the machine. Organizing is the work of matching those people to that work.

Headcount is the number of people in an organization or a unit, counted in people rather than in hours worked.

Worked example — organizing two carts. The cart's plan is illustrative, constructed for this course, not real data; people are counted in headcount and volume in drinks.

Organizing, the people: 1 owner + 2 cart leads + 2 × 2 part-time baristas = 1 + 2 + 4 = 7 people.
Organizing, each cart's team: 1 cart lead + 2 baristas = 3 people, so the two carts hold 2 × 3 = 6 people, and 6 + 1 owner = 7 people.
Organizing, levels and spans: 3 levels; the owner's span of control is 2 (the two cart leads) and each cart lead's span of control is 2 (two baristas), while the business has 7 people.
Organizing, the morning rush: if each cart runs one espresso machine, each cart can make 30 drinks an hour, so one cart makes 30 × 4 = 120 drinks in a four-hour morning rush and the two carts make 2 × 120 = 240 drinks.

In words: organizing turns the chart into two working teams of 3, each with one lead and two baristas, and the two teams together can make up to 240 drinks in a four-hour morning rush.

Notice what you have decided by organizing. It did not change the chart from Week 8. It filled each box with a job: the lead opens the cart and handles problems, one barista works the counter, and one works the machine. The 30-drinks-an-hour limit from Week 6 still applies at each cart, because each cart still has one machine.

In practice (your tools). You can check the organizing numbers in any free spreadsheet, such as Google Sheets. Type 2 in cell B2 for the number of carts, 1 in cell B3 for the leads at each cart, and 2 in cell B4 for the baristas at each cart. In cell B5 type =1+B2*(B3+B4) for the headcount. Type 30 in cell B6 for the drinks an hour at one cart, and in cell B7 type =B2*B6*4 for the drinks in a four-hour rush across both carts.

Misconception check. Students often think the span of control is the size of the whole business, so the owner of a 7-person business has a span of 7. That is tempting, because the owner is "in charge of" everyone. But only the 2 cart leads report directly to the owner; the baristas report to their leads. The cure is to count only the people one line below the manager on the chart.

Memory hook: count the boxes for headcount; count one line down for span.

4. Lead the people: three leadership styles

Picture three leaders on the same afternoon. In an illustrative hospital emergency room, a charge nurse gives fast, short orders as an ambulance arrives. At an illustrative community food bank, a volunteer coordinator asks the volunteers to help plan the next food drive. On an illustrative software team, a team lead tells experienced developers what a new feature must do and lets them decide how to build it. All three are leading well. As you will see, they are leading differently.

Leadership is influencing people to work toward a goal, whether or not the person doing the influencing holds a management title.

A leadership style is the usual way a leader makes decisions and involves the group, commonly sorted as autocratic, participative, or free-rein; courses use different labels for the same three ideas.

The three-way split traces to Lewin, Lippitt, and White's 1939 study of group climates.

Autocratic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader makes the decision alone and tells the group what to do.
Participative leadership is a leadership style, also called democratic, in which the leader involves the group in a decision before it is made.
Free-rein leadership is a leadership style, also called laissez-faire, in which the leader sets broad limits and the group makes its own decisions within them.

Worked example — matching style to situation. All three settings are illustrative, and the example uses no figures.

The charge nurse: seconds matter and the nurse knows the procedure, so deciding alone fits. Autocratic.
The volunteer coordinator: volunteers give their time freely and know their neighborhood, so asking them first builds commitment and better ideas. Participative.
The software team lead: the developers know the code better than anyone, so setting the goal and the limits, then stepping back, fits. Free-rein.

In words: each leader picked the style that fit the time pressure, the group's experience, and what the decision needed.

The cart's owner uses all three. The owner sets the 5-dollar price alone, because Week 7's break-even rests on it. The owner asks the two cart leads before choosing the weekly special. And the owner lets each lead arrange the morning shift within the plan.

Misconception check. Students often think one leadership style is the right one everywhere, usually participative, because it sounds the fairest. That is tempting, because involving people often does build commitment. But a charge nurse who stops to hold a vote during a crisis puts patients at risk, and a team lead who decides every detail for expert developers wastes their skill. The cure is to match the style to the situation: the time pressure, the group's experience, and the stakes.

Pause and try this. Choose one: (a) describe a time someone led you in one of the three styles, and say whether that style fit the situation; or (b) pick one of the three settings above and explain in two sentences what would go wrong if the leader used a different style.

Memory hook: I decide, we decide, you decide — match it to the moment.

5. Tell them apart: management versus leadership

Picture two cart leads. The first writes a perfect shift schedule, orders cups on time, and tracks every count, yet the baristas do the minimum and two of them want to quit. The second is warm and inspiring, and the baristas love the shifts, yet the cart runs out of milk twice a week. Neither one is doing the whole job.

You have probably worked for someone like each of them. Managing and leading overlap, but they are not the same work.

Managing is planning, organizing, and controlling the work: the schedule, the supplies, the counts.
Leading is influencing people toward the work: earning their effort, trust, and care.

One person usually does both. The cart leads do both every morning: they run the schedule (managing) and they keep two baristas willing to give their best (leading).

Worked example — sorting a cart lead's morning. The cart lead is illustrative, and the example uses no figures.

Checks that the milk order arrived: managing (controlling the supplies).
Thanks a barista by name for handling a long line calmly: leading.
Moves one barista to the counter when the line grows: managing (organizing the work).
Explains why the cart counts waste, so the baristas see why it matters: leading.

In words: in one morning the same lead switches between running the work and moving the people, and a good morning needs both.

Misconception check. Students often think management and leadership are one thing, because one person often does both. That is tempting, because "manager" and "leader" are used as if they meant the same. But the first cart lead above manages well and leads poorly, and the second does the reverse. The cure is to ask of each task: is it about the work, or about the people doing it?

Memory hook: run the schedule; win the effort — two jobs, one person.

6. Check the results: controlling with a standard

Picture the first cart's lead at closing time with a notebook. Two numbers go in: drinks sold that day and drinks poured out. Without something to compare them with, the numbers tell you nothing. Controlling gives them a meaning.

A standard is the target a result is measured against when a manager controls the work, such as a daily sales count or a waste limit.

Controlling runs in four steps: set a standard, measure the result, compare the two, and correct course if the result misses.

A break-even pace is the number of units a business must sell each operating day to reach its break-even over the year, found as break-even units divided by operating days.

break-even pace = break-even units ÷ operating days

Worked example — the first cart's two daily counts. The cart's figures are illustrative, constructed for this course; volume is in drinks, and money is in dollars.

Controlling, the standard: the first cart's break-even pace is 12,000 ÷ 250 = 48 drinks a day, so its daily count of drinks sold is compared with 48.
Controlling, the waste count: each poured-out drink uses the 2-dollar variable cost and brings in none of the 5-dollar price, so the daily waste count is a cost the cart lead watches.
Compare and correct: a day below 48 is a day behind the break-even pace, and a rising waste count is a cost growing for no sale. Either one sends the lead looking for a cause, such as a slow machine or drinks made before they were ordered.

In words: the cart's lead compares each day's count with the 48-drink standard and treats every poured-out drink as a 2-dollar cost with no sale, then looks for the cause before anything else.

Caveat: one day's count is not a trend. A rainy morning can put one day below 48 without anything being wrong. A manager looks for a pattern across several days before changing how the cart runs.

In practice (your tools). You can track the count in any free spreadsheet, such as Google Sheets. Type each day's drinks sold down column B, starting in B2. In cell C2 type =B2-48 and fill it down; a negative result marks a day below the break-even pace, and a positive one a day ahead of it.

Misconception check. Students often think controlling means micromanaging people: watching every move and correcting every small choice. That is tempting, because the word "control" sounds like holding a tight grip. But controlling measures results against a standard and corrects course; it looks at the count, not over each barista's shoulder. The cure is to name the standard first, then ask what the result says, before telling anyone to do anything differently.

Pause and try this. Choose one: (a) name one standard you already use on yourself, such as a study goal or a budget, and describe what you do when you miss it; or (b) explain in two sentences why a manager should look for the cause before correcting a missed count.

Memory hook: standard, measure, compare, correct — never micromanage.

7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual

Picture the first cart's lead on a busy morning. The grinder jams, and the lead clears it in a minute. A new barista is flustered, and the lead calms them down and shows them the next step. Now picture the owner that evening, deciding whether a second cart fits the plan at all. The lead and the owner both manage, but, as you will see, they lean on different skills.

Managerial skills are the abilities a manager uses to do the job, commonly sorted as technical, human, and conceptual skills, with the mix shifting by the manager's level. The three-way sort follows Katz (1955), "Skills of an Effective Administrator."

Technical skills are the ability to do the specific work of a job, such as operating its equipment or following its procedures.
Human skills are the ability to work with and through people, such as coaching, listening, and settling disagreements.
Conceptual skills are the ability to see the whole organization, how its parts fit together, and how a decision in one part affects the others.

Two kinds of managers sit at different levels of the chart.

A first-line manager is a manager who directly supervises the people doing the core work and who manages no other managers, such as a shift supervisor or a crew lead.
A top manager is a manager at the highest level of an organization, responsible for its overall direction, such as an owner or a chief executive.

Every manager uses all three skills. The mix shifts with level: technical skills matter most for a first-line manager, and conceptual skills matter most for a top manager.

Worked example — the same shift, two organizations. Both are illustrative, and the example uses no figures.

The cart lead, a first-line manager: pulls an espresso shot, clears a jammed grinder (technical); coaches a new barista and settles a scheduling clash (human).
The owner, the top manager: judges whether a second cart fits the plan and how it will change the first (conceptual).
An illustrative city transit agency: a shift supervisor at a bus yard needs to know the buses and the routes well (technical), while the agency's general manager needs to see the whole network and how a change on one route affects the others (conceptual).

In words: the closer a manager is to the core work, the more technical skill matters; the closer to the top, the more conceptual skill matters, and every manager still uses all three.

Limitation: the three skills are a classroom model. Real jobs blend them, and a top manager in a small business, like the cart's owner, may still pull shots on a busy day.

Misconception check. Students often think the person who is best at the work itself is automatically ready for the top job. That is tempting, because the best barista seems the natural choice to run the business. But the top job leans hardest on conceptual skill, seeing the whole business, which the best barista may never have needed. The cure is to ask which skill the job leans on most at its level.

Pause and try this. Choose one: (a) think of a job you have held or watched closely and name which of the three skills its supervisor used most; or (b) explain in two sentences why the best barista might struggle as the owner of a two-cart business.

Memory hook: near the work, know the work; near the top, see the whole.

Key terms

management — The work of directing an organization's people, money, and materials toward its goals, conventionally taught as four functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. (first used: 1. Name the job: management and its four functions)
four functions of management — A classroom model that sorts a manager's work into planning, organizing, leading, and controlling; real managers move among all four through the day. (first used: 1. Name the job: management and its four functions)
planning — The management function of deciding what an organization wants to achieve and how it will get there, from long-range goals to the next day's schedule. (first used: 1. Name the job: management and its four functions)
organizing — The management function of arranging people, positions, and resources so the work in the plan can get done, including who reports to whom. (first used: 1. Name the job: management and its four functions)
leading — The management function of guiding and influencing people so they work toward the organization's goals. (first used: 1. Name the job: management and its four functions)
controlling — The management function of setting a standard, measuring results, comparing the two, and correcting course when a result misses its target. (first used: 1. Name the job: management and its four functions)
strategic planning — Long-range planning, usually one to five years ahead, that sets the direction of the whole organization, such as deciding to open a second location. (first used: 2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives)
tactical planning — Planning for less than a year that turns a strategic plan into specific steps for one part of the organization, such as a department or a single site. (first used: 2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives)
operational planning — Day-to-day planning that sets the work for the next shift or the next few days, such as a staff schedule or a supply order. (first used: 2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives)
contingency planning — Planning for what an organization will do if something goes wrong or a situation changes, such as a key machine breaking down. (first used: 2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives)
mission statement — A short statement of what an organization does, whom it serves, and why, which its plans and objectives are meant to serve. (first used: 2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives)
objective — A specific result an organization means to reach by a set time, written so that someone can later check whether it was reached. (first used: 2. Plan ahead: four types of planning, a mission, and objectives)
headcount — The number of people in an organization or a unit, counted in people rather than in hours worked. (first used: 3. Organize the people: two carts, seven people, three levels)
leadership — Influencing people to work toward a goal, whether or not the person doing the influencing holds a management title. (first used: 4. Lead the people: three leadership styles)
leadership style — The usual way a leader makes decisions and involves the group, commonly sorted as autocratic, participative, or free-rein; courses use different labels for the same three ideas. (first used: 4. Lead the people: three leadership styles)
autocratic leadership — A leadership style in which the leader makes the decision alone and tells the group what to do. (first used: 4. Lead the people: three leadership styles)
participative leadership — A leadership style, also called democratic, in which the leader involves the group in a decision before it is made. (first used: 4. Lead the people: three leadership styles)
free-rein leadership — A leadership style, also called laissez-faire, in which the leader sets broad limits and the group makes its own decisions within them. (first used: 4. Lead the people: three leadership styles)
standard — The target a result is measured against when a manager controls the work, such as a daily sales count or a waste limit. (first used: 6. Check the results: controlling with a standard)
break-even pace — The number of units a business must sell each operating day to reach its break-even over the year, found as break-even units divided by operating days. (first used: 6. Check the results: controlling with a standard)
managerial skills — The abilities a manager uses to do the job, commonly sorted as technical, human, and conceptual skills, with the mix shifting by the manager's level. (first used: 7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual)
technical skills — The ability to do the specific work of a job, such as operating its equipment or following its procedures. (first used: 7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual)
human skills — The ability to work with and through people, such as coaching, listening, and settling disagreements. (first used: 7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual)
conceptual skills — The ability to see the whole organization, how its parts fit together, and how a decision in one part affects the others. (first used: 7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual)
first-line manager — A manager who directly supervises the people doing the core work and who manages no other managers, such as a shift supervisor or a crew lead. (first used: 7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual)
top manager — A manager at the highest level of an organization, responsible for its overall direction, such as an owner or a chief executive. (first used: 7. Match the skills to the level: technical, human, and conceptual)

Summary

Management directs people, money, and materials toward goals through four functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
The four functions are a way of sorting work, not a timetable; managers use all four every day.
Strategic plans look one to five years ahead for the whole business; tactical plans cover under a year for one part; operational plans cover the next day; contingency plans cover what if.
A mission statement says what the business does, for whom, and why; an objective names a checkable result by a set time.
At two carts the cart organizes 1 + 2 + 4 = 7 people on 3 levels, with a span of control of 2 at each level.
Autocratic, participative, and free-rein leadership each fit some situations; no style is right everywhere.
Managing runs the work; leading moves the people; one person usually does both.
Controlling sets a standard, measures, compares, and corrects; the first cart's standard is 12,000 ÷ 250 = 48 drinks a day.
Technical skills matter most near the work and conceptual skills matter most at the top.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

An illustrative landscaping company has an owner over three crew leads, and each crew lead is over four crew members. Find the headcount, the number of levels, the owner's span of control, and each crew lead's span. A friend says the owner's span is 15; explain what went wrong.
An illustrative public library makes four plans. Sort each as strategic, tactical, operational, or contingency: (a) a five-year plan to open a second branch; (b) a plan for this year's summer reading program; (c) tomorrow's schedule for the front desk; (d) what staff do if the power goes out during story time.
An illustrative smoothie stand has a break-even of 9,000 smoothies a year over 300 operating days. Find its break-even pace. On one day it sells 26 smoothies; how far is that from the standard, and what should the manager do first?
Match a leadership style to each illustrative leader and say why: (a) a wildfire crew boss as the wind shifts toward the crew; (b) a neighborhood garden club's organizer choosing how to share out new plots; (c) the head of a lab of experienced researchers setting next year's research goals. Then say which managerial skill a crew boss on the fire line needs most, and which the head of the whole fire agency needs most.

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

Headcount: 1 + 3 + 3 × 4 = 1 + 3 + 12 = 16 people. Levels: 3 (the owner, the crew leads, the crew members). The owner's span of control is 3, the crew leads who report directly; each crew lead's span is 4. The friend's 15 counts everyone below the owner, 16 − 1 = 15, but span of control counts only the people one line down, so the owner's span is 3.
(a) Strategic: it looks years ahead and changes the whole library. (b) Tactical: it covers less than a year and one part of the library. (c) Operational: it sets the next day's work. (d) Contingency: it is a what-if plan for something going wrong.
Break-even pace: 9,000 ÷ 300 = 30 smoothies a day. The day's count of 26 is 30 − 26 = 4 smoothies below the standard. The manager's first move is to look for a cause, such as weather or a slow blender, and to watch for a pattern across several days, because one day is not a trend.
(a) Autocratic: there is no time to discuss, and the crew boss knows what to do. (b) Participative: the members will live with the choice, so involving them builds commitment. (c) Free-rein, within broad limits: the researchers are experts, so the head sets the goals and lets them decide how to reach them, though asking them to help set the goals (participative) can also fit. The crew boss on the fire line, a first-line manager, needs technical skill most; the head of the whole agency, a top manager, needs conceptual skill most.

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, and the quiz — and next week you see how hiring and the employment laws decide who fills the chart's empty boxes.

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