Leadership vs. Management - Shannon Meaney-Ryer



Leadership vs. ManagementShannon MeaneyLIBR 282 Literature SynthesisExecutive SummaryLeaders manage and managers lead, but the two activities are not synonymous…. Management functions can potentially provide leadership; leadership activities can contribute to managing. Nevertheless, some managers do not lead, and some leaders do not manage". CITATION Ber90 \l 1033 (Bernard M. Bass, 1990) A good manager does things right, is efficient and how to do something and a leader does the right things, has vision and innovation CITATION Ben03 \l 1033 (Bennis & Goldsmith, 2003). People can find themselves in leadership roles even they hold supervisor or manager position, the words are sometimes interchanged and often times not differentiated. Webster’s dictionary refers to “Management”, conducting or supervising of something and “Leadership”, the power or ability to lead other people. A leader is a person who plays key roles in decision making, setting a direction or tone for the group, while a manager is a person with critical roles and responsibilities helping the organization succeed CITATION webster \l 1033 (webster). What is the difference between a manager and a leader? Why is there a difference? Are they synonymous with one another? This paper will introduce the board to multiple definitions, characteristics, history, theories and the differences and similarities between leadership and management, discussing both in depth to educate the reader in how to apply theories into contemporary administrative roles.IntroductionWhen you are in a supervisory role within an organization do you every stop and think, am I a manager or a leader? Leadership and management are synonymous styles of supervision currently used within today’s professional environment. This paper will introduces literature that defines theories, presents historical significance and outlines the differences and similarities of both these terms. What are Leadership and Management?Webster’s dictionary refers to “Management”, conducting or supervising of something and “Leadership”, the power or ability to lead other people. A leader is a person who plays key roles in decision making, setting a direction or tone for the group, while a manager is a person with critical roles and responsibilities helping the organization succeed CITATION webster \l 1033 (webster)According to Bennis, the leaders job is to inspire and motivate and a manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate CITATION Ben03 \l 1033 (Bennis & Goldsmith, 2003), Steven Covey, author of the 7 habits of highly effective people, believes that you lead people and you manage things CITATION Ste04 \l 1033 (Covey, 2004) and John Knotter of the Harvard Business School believes that management is about coping with complexity while leading is coping with change CITATION San09 \l 1033 (Allman, 2009). Gardner identified managers often suggest and individual who holds a directive post in an organization, a person who organizes functions, allocates resources, and makes the best use of people. He also noted that every time he encountered an effective manager that the manager possessed a lot of leadership abilities but the focus was different CITATION JWG90 \l 1033 (Gardner, 1990).Historically leadership is one of the oldest preoccupations and management is a fairly new concept. With the emergence of complex organizations, leaders introduce the big ideas. They Create and implement the big picture and its operations then hand it over to a manger to maintain its efficiency and processes, bringing order and consistency. Both are vital to for a successful workplace CITATION Jam06 \l 1033 (Kotterman, 2006). LeadershipBasic leadership styles included; autocratic, one who makes all the decisions, tells employees what to do, and micro manages their employees; Democratic, one who encourages employee participation, works with employees to determine what to do, and does not micro manage; and Laissez-Faire, one who allows employees to make decisions and decide what to do. Leadership is the function of knowing, yourself, having vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize their own leadership potential CITATION Her07 \l 1033 (Hernon & Rossiter, 2007). Leadership influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Vision, direction and focus, clear goals, a team spirit, are leadership skills that successfully align people towards that common goal. Leadership is the single biggest factor that drives change and organizational improvement. A leader has a clear idea of thaw they want to do professionally and personally and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks and failures CITATION Ben09 \l 1033 (Bennis, On Becoming A Leader, 2009). Leadership TheoriesBehavioral/Trait theory is a study of the actions, or behaviors, that define a leadership style.? This theoretical approach to understanding leaders creates categories of styles, which are aligned with the actions the leader may take, or the methods they use to reach their goals. Behavioral leadership theorists have created a list of distinctive characteristics accounting for leadership effectiveness. From research studies conducted during the 1940s and 1950s, the trait theory of styles focuses on "what the leader is." Leadership is thought of as a function of a finite number of characteristics that differentiate the successful from the unsuccessful leader. Bennis and Goldsmith are innovate, original, develops, investigates, trust, long- range or big picture perspective, credibility, asks what or why questions, keeping an eye on the horizon, challenges, has vision and motivates CITATION Ben03 \l 1033 (Bennis & Goldsmith, 2003). John Gardner studied a large number of North American organizations and leaders and came to the conclusion that there were some qualities or attributes that did appear to mean that a leader in one situation could lead in another. These included: physical vitality and stamina, Intelligence and action-oriented judgment, eagerness to accept responsibility, task competence, understanding of followers and their needs, skill in dealing with people, need for achievement,?capacity to motivate people, courage and resolution, trustworthiness, decisiveness, self-confidence, assertiveness, and adaptability/flexibility CITATION JWG90 \l 1033 (Gardner, 1990). Although these lists were created and determined to be attributes to successful leaders, theorists have been unsuccessful in identifying a universal set of traits that all leaders possess. Edwin Ghiselli cited the traits of initiative, self-assurance, individuality, supervisory ability, and intelligence CITATION Placeholder1 \l 1033 (Ghiselli, 1963). He concluded that certain traits are important to effective leadership; supervisory ability being the most important. Overall, the trait theory has made a contribution to the study of effective managerial styles, but not as much as was once thought. Seemingly, traits do not consistently distinguish the best leaders, the list of traits keeps growing, many traits are difficult to measure, and the trait theory ignores other important variables in the leadership situation.Participative Leadership involves decision making the understanding of the issues involved by those who carry out the decisions. Taking a more democratic approach to leadership, this leader seeks to involve others in the decision making process, i.e., stakeholders, subordinates, peers or supervisors. There are many varieties on this spectrum, including stages where the leader sells the idea to the team. Looking at the table below you will see that the level of participation may also depend on the type of decision being made. CITATION Cha11 \l 1033 (Changing Minds , 2011)Situation leadership, the leader’s action best depends on the range of situational factors. When a decision is being made the leader does not follow a single style of leadership but uses the transactional methods. Working on such factors as external relationships, acquisition of resources, managing demands on the group and managing structures and cultures of the group, Tamnenbaum and Schmidt identified three forces that led to the leader’s actions: the forces in the situation, forces in the follower and forces in the leader. A leader’s leadership style is highly variable CITATION Tan58 \l 1033 (Tannenbaum, 1958). Maier noted that leaders not only considered the likelihood of the follower accepting the situation, but over all importance of getting things done, this leader is more likely to be pick a style simply because of the outcome factor CITATION Mai63 \l 1033 (Maier, 1963).Contingency Theory is the ability for a leader to lead is contingent on various situational factors such as the leaders preferred leadership style, abilities and behaviors of the employees and other situational factors. Leaders who find a good fit between their orientation and the situation will are more positive, outgoing, confident and enthusiastic. This creates an atmosphere of productivity and satisfaction for their employees CITATION Che97 \l 1033 (Chemers, 1997). , Fred Fiedler's contingency model contains the relationship between leadership style and the favorableness of the situation. Situational favorableness was described by Fiedler in terms of three empirically derived dimensions; The leader-member relationship, which in the most important variable in determining the situation's favorableness, the degree of task structure, which is the second most important input into the favorableness of the situation and the leader's position power obtained through formal authority, which is the third most important dimension of the situation. Fiedler's model, leadership effectiveness is the result of interaction between the style of the leader and the characteristics of the environment in which the leader works. CITATION Ant10 \l 1033 (Antoine, 2010)Transactional leadership reflects the theory that people are motivated by reward and punishment. The transactional leader works through creating clear structures that are clear on what is required of their employees. The employees that follow these orders receive contingent rewards and the one that fall short are managed by exception and punished for failures CITATION Che97 \l 1033 (Chemers, 1997).Transformational leadership inspires people to achieve their goals and objectives. The way a transformation leader injects enthusiasm and energy into getting things accomplished. This theory is based on four principles; charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. House and Shamir’s Self- Concept Theory of transformational and charismatic leadership gave birth to their path-goal-theory, which introduced the affects of subordinate motivation by enhancing the extrinsic valence of outcomes and by making the attainment of outcomes easier by clarifying paths to the goal and reducing roadblocks. These leaders proved coaching and guidance to improve the employees perception attaining a goal and then clarifies performance to reward through goal setting and feedback CITATION Che97 \l 1033 (Chemers, 1997). ManagementThe basic purpose of management is efficiently using resources wisely and in a cost effective way and effectively making the right decisions and successfully implementing them. There are different levels of management, top, middle and first-line. The management process entails planning and decision making, organizing, leading and controlling. Fundamental management skills include technical, interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic, communication and time management CITATION Ric07 \l 1033 (Griffin, 2006)What is the difference between management and leadership?Management??–?makes systems of people and technology work well day after day, week after week, year after year. Planning & budgeting Organizing & staffing Controlling & problem solving Taking complex systems of people and technology and making them run efficiently and effectively, hour after hour, day after day Leadership?–? creates the systems that managers manage and changes them in fundamental ways to take advantage of opportunities and to avoid hazards Creating vision & strategy Communicating & setting direction Motivating action Aligning people Creating systems that managers can manage and transforming them when needed to allow for growth, evolution, opportunities and hazard avoidance CITATION Joh11 \l 1033 (Kotter, 2011) ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download