ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology

Leadership, management and supervision: formula sheet

Full chapter guide

Key formulas

Leadership focus: Leadership = vision + direction + inspiring and influencing people; Long-term, concerned with change and with why the organisation does what it does. Authority can be informal.
Management focus: Management = plan + organise + coordinate + control resources to meet objectives; Medium-term, concerned with efficiency and how objectives are achieved. Based on formal, delegated authority.
Supervision focus: Supervision = allocate tasks + monitor output and quality + guide and support staff; Short-term, operational, front-line. Supervisors report to managers and direct non-management staff.
Scope ladder: Leader: organisation-wide direction; Manager: function or department; Supervisor: day-to-day work of a team; Use this to match a scenario to a role when the wording is ambiguous.
Interpersonal roles (3): Figurehead, Leader, Liaison; Arise from the manager's formal authority and status. They are about dealing with people.
Informational roles (3): Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson; Cover receiving information, passing it inside the unit and passing it outside.
Decisional roles (4): Entrepreneur, Disturbance handler, Resource allocator, Negotiator; Cover making choices. This is the only group with four roles, giving ten in total.
Memory aid for direction of information: Monitor = information in; Disseminator = information passed inside; Spokesperson = information passed outside; Use this to separate the three informational roles.
Fayol's five functions: Planning, Organising, Commanding, Coordinating, Controlling; Planning sets objectives and the way to reach them. Organising arranges resources and structure. Commanding gives instructions and gets people to act. Coordinating harmonises the activities of all parts. Controlling checks results against plans and corrects deviations.
Fayol's 14 principles (part 1): 1 Division of work; 2 Authority and responsibility; 3 Discipline; 4 Unity of command; 5 Unity of direction; 6 Subordination of individual interest to general interest; 7 Remuneration; Division of work means specialisation raises efficiency. Authority must match responsibility. Unity of command means one employee has one boss. Unity of direction means one plan and one head for a group of activities with the same objective.
Fayol's 14 principles (part 2): 8 Centralisation; 9 Scalar chain; 10 Order; 11 Equity; 12 Stability of tenure; 13 Initiative; 14 Esprit de corps; Scalar chain is the line of authority from top to bottom. Equity is kindness combined with justice. Esprit de corps means team spirit and harmony. Remuneration should be fair to both employee and employer.
Authority: Authority = formal, legitimate right to command, linked to position; Comes from the organisation's structure, not from the person.
Power: Power = ability to influence others, with or without formal authority; Can come from knowledge, personality or control of resources.
Responsibility and accountability: Responsibility can be delegated; accountability cannot; The delegating manager remains answerable for the outcome.
French and Raven's power types: Legitimate | Reward | Coercive | Expert | Referent; Legitimate: position. Reward: ability to give benefits. Coercive: ability to punish. Expert: skill or knowledge. Referent: admiration and personal appeal.
Delegation: Delegation = task + authority + responsibility passed down; accountability retained; The subordinate needs enough resources and authority to do the task.
Lewin's three styles: Autocratic | Democratic | Laissez-faire; Who makes the decisions: leader alone, leader with group, or group with little leader input.
Blake and Mouton grid: (Concern for production, concern for people), each scored 1 to 9; 1,1 impoverished; 9,1 authority-obedience; 1,9 country club; 5,5 middle of the road; 9,9 team management.
Adair's action-centred leadership: Task + Team + Individual needs; Three overlapping circles. Neglecting one affects the others.
Tannenbaum and Schmidt continuum: Boss-centred leadership ←→ Subordinate-centred leadership; Moves from leader tells, to leader sells, consults, then group decides within limits.
Strategic level: Long term | whole organisation | unstructured | mostly external information; Set by directors and senior managers. Concerns objectives and direction.
Tactical level: Medium term | function or department | semi-structured | internal and external information; Set by middle managers. Concerns resource use and control against plans.
Operational level: Short term | specific tasks | structured | detailed internal information; Set by supervisors and team leaders. Concerns day-to-day running.
Programmed vs non-programmed decisions: Programmed = routine, rule-based | Non-programmed = new, unstructured, judgement-based; Programmed decisions cluster at operational level. Non-programmed decisions cluster at strategic level.

Quick revision

Leaders focus on vision, direction and inspiring people; managers focus on planning, organising and controlling resources.
Supervisors oversee day-to-day work of operational staff and sit at the front line of management.
Mintzberg grouped managerial roles into interpersonal, informational and decisional.
Fayol's five functions of management are planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling.
Authority is the formal right to give orders; power is the ability to influence others, whether or not it is formal.
Responsibility is the obligation to carry out a task; you can delegate a task but you remain accountable for the outcome.
Delegation passes authority for a task down to a subordinate, who then becomes responsible for doing it.
Strategic managers take long-term decisions, tactical managers medium-term, and operational managers short-term day-to-day decisions.
Autocratic leaders decide alone, democratic leaders involve the team, and laissez-faire leaders leave decisions to the team.
In multiple response questions, select exactly the number of answers the question states.

Common mistakes

Saying leaders and managers are the same thing. Fix: Separate them by focus: leaders influence and set direction; managers use authority to plan and control resources.
Assuming a leader must hold a formal position. Fix: Remember leadership can be informal and rests on influence. A junior employee can lead.
Confusing the spokesperson and disseminator roles. Fix: Check who receives it. Inside the unit is disseminator. Outside the unit is spokesperson.
Calling a manager who gathers information a liaison. Fix: Liaison is about building a network of contacts. Collecting information to understand events is monitor.
Confusing unity of command with unity of direction. Fix: Command is about people: one employee, one boss. Direction is about activities: one plan, one head for the same objective.
Listing the functions as plan, organise, lead, control (the modern version) when the question asks for Fayol's. Fix: Write Fayol's five: planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, controlling. Add 'also called leading' only as a note.
Treating authority and power as the same thing. Fix: Authority is the formal right linked to a position. Power is the ability to influence, which can exist without a position.
Saying a manager can delegate accountability. Fix: Delegate the task and responsibility, but state that the manager remains accountable for the outcome.
Mixing up 9,1 and 1,9 on the grid. Fix: Production comes first, people second. So 9,1 is high production, low people.
Calling laissez-faire leadership democratic. Fix: In democratic leadership the leader still takes part and guides the discussion. In laissez-faire the leader largely steps back.

Exam tips

Most questions are scenario-based, so identify the role from what the person actually does, not from the job title.
In multiple response questions, check each option separately and select exactly the number requested.
Link your answer to purpose, scope and activities. These three words cover most distinctions the exam asks for.
Remember that leadership does not need formal authority, while management and supervision do.
Link this topic to Mintzberg's managerial roles and leadership styles, as those topics often appear in the same questions.
Learn the three categories first, then fit the ten roles into them. The split is 3, 3 and 4.
In multiple response questions, check the number of answers you must select, and test each option by category.
Look for the verb in the scenario. It almost always points to one role.