Leadership and management are commonly seen as the same, but in reality, they are not. Leadership can be defined as setting a vision or new direction for a group of people for them to follow (Team Technology Business Resources, 2011). It can also be regarded as the act of inducing people to be aware or conscious of what they feel – to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action (Burns, 1978). It is a dynamic relationship that, at its best, finds leaders engaged in a process of raising the consciousness of followers, or, at a minimum, engages both leaders and followers in a common enterprise. Leadership is thus, meaningless, without its connection to common purposes and collective needs. People in charge of spearheading leadership are called leaders.
Management, on the other hand, is the process of planning, organsing, directing and controlling resources such as labour, money and equipments to achieve a particular set of objectives (Simpson, 2011). In other words, management is usually concerned with putting measures in place to achieve organizational goals and plans or implementing policies by directing and controlling group effort. Managers are responsible for ensuring the entire process of management is successful.
From the above elaborations, the following are some of the differences between leadership and management
- Leadership works through influence, while management works through decision making. For example, according to Kotter (1990), leaders motivate and inspire other people to achieve their ambitions. Thus, leaders are people who are able to think and influence the actions, beliefs and feelings of others. Management by contrast direct, control and ensure everything is going according to plan in an organisation.
- Leadership is responsible for producing change or movement while management can be said as being responsible for maintaining order within an organisation (Kotter, 1990).
- Management process reduces uncertainty and provides stability; on the other hand, the act of leadership creates uncertainty as it focuses on pursuing opportunities and therefore results in change.
- Management controls or directs people and resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established in contrast to leadership which gives room for the application of individual innovation devoid of established principles.
- Another striking difference between leadership and management is that, leadership may be summarized as activities of vision and judgement, which results in what is termed as effectiveness (“doing the right things” by constantly measuring if the actual output meets the desired output) while management is associated with activities of mastering routines which produces efficiency (“doing things right” by focusing on getting the maximum output with minimum resources).
The difference between leadership and management can be summarised by considering what happens when you have one without the other as outlined below.
Leadership without management
...sets a direction or vision that others follow, without considering too much how the new direction is going to be achieved. Other people then have to work hard in the trail that is left behind, picking up the pieces and making it work. E.g. A Company might decide to expand its business by deciding to open more outlets by the end of 2012 - this becomes the vision but management of resources to achieve this vision comes from others outside that outfit.
Management without leadership
...co-ordinates resources to ensure things happen according to already-established rules. E.g. a referee manages a sports game, but does not usually provide "leadership" because there is no new change, no new direction - the referee is controlling resources to ensure that the laws of the game are followed and status quo is maintained.
Prior to undertaking my A level exams at college, my year tutor, who I consider as the leader in charge of my class, played a significant role in ensuring that each and every one in her class worked hard to achieve our various educational goals. She was very lovely and adorable especially in my Science class considering the fact that none of my colleagues and I was interested in the subject. She encouraged everyone to do well and get good grades. She had an affable personality that made all students from every year group feel more comfortable to speak to her about any issue. We got motivated through her words of encouragement which later on imbued in us the “you can all do it” spirit. Owing to her inability to inspire us, at the end of the academic year, majority of my classmates ended up earning good grades in Science and other subjects which led to most of her students gaining entry into the University such as the one I find myself in today.
From this experience, I can relate the Trait approach theory to my class tutor. The trait theory of leadership is the view that people are born with inherited traits - and that some traits are particularly suited to leadership (Warrilow, 2011). Early research on leadership - which was a development of the Great man theory of leadership - was based on the psychological focus of the day, which was of people having inherited characteristics or traits. Attention was thus put on identifying these traits, often by studying successful leaders. The focus was not on finding way of teaching these "skills" to people to "develop" leaders, but was on finding other people with these traits who could also become great leaders (ibid.). Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioural characteristics shared by leaders.
Stogdill (1974) established that the Trait theory of leadership identifies the following traits and skills as critical to leaders:
Traits
- Adaptable to situations
- Alert to social environment
- Ambitious
- Assertive
- Cooperative
- Decisive
- Dependable
- Dominant (desire to influence others)
- Persistent
- Tolerant of stress
- Willing to assume responsibility
Skills
- Clever (intelligent)
- Conceptually skilled
- Creative
- Diplomatic and tactful
- Fluent in speaking
- Knowledgeable about group task
- Organised (administrative ability)
- Persuasive
- Socially skilled
In conclusion, it can be stated that, not all managers are leaders, and similarly, not all leaders are managers. Both management and leadership skills are very important because their absence in an organisation can prove costly to its success. The importance of both management and leadership within an organisation is illustrated in Figure 1 below which depicts the results they both produce when synergised.
Thus, although both leadership and management are different terms as discussed above, both processes complement each other as institutions need to be both effective (leadership) and efficient (management) in order to be successful. A combination of both leadership and management within an organisation sets a new direction and manages the resources to achieve it.
Also, it is worth mentioning that, although the trait theory is often regarded as complex and also raises some level of disagreement over which traits are the most important for an effective leader, the theory gives constructive information about leadership (Management Study Guide, 2008). It can be applied by people at all levels in all types of organisations. Managers can utilize the information from the theory to evaluate their position in the organisation and to assess how their position can be made stronger in the organization. This theory makes the manager aware of their strengths and weaknesses and thus they get an understanding of how they can develop their leadership qualities.
REFERENCES
Burns, J.M. (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.
Kotter, J. P. (1990) ‘What leaders really Do?’, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 103-11.
Management Study Guide (2008) Trait Theory of Leadership. Available at:http://www.managementstudyguide.com/trait-theory-of-leadership.htm (Accessed: 25 October 2011).
Simpson, M. (2001) ‘Leadership’. MG 402 People and Organisations [Online]. Available at: http://blackboard.bucks.ac.uk (Accessed: 25 October 2011).
Stogdill, R.M. (1974) Handbook of leadership: A survey of the literature. New York: Free Press.
Team Technology Business Resources (2011) Leadership and Management. Available at: http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership-basics.html (Accessed:25 October 2011)
Warrilow, S. (2011) Trait theory of leadership. Available at: http://www.strategies-for-managing-change.com/trait-theory-of-leadership.html (Accessed: 24 October 2011).
http://www.1000ventures.com/design_elements/selfmade/leadership_management_synergy_6x4.png (Accessed: 23 October 2011).
Another excellent blog. I particularly liked the LEadership without management and management without leadership section, as this was powerful in describing the differences between the two.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern with your blogs is that you must be spending a great deal of time, doing all the research and writing up the blogs. You are doing exceptionally well but I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work we are asking you to do!