Leadership vs Management Leadership and management are often referred to as the same thing. However, researchers are starting to change the way leadership is seen. The very root of the word leadership implies helping lead one on a journey, while management’s root suggests submission. With these pieces of information as lenses, it becomes easier to see the difference. In Margaret J. Wheatley’s book, Leadership and the New Science, she makes a simple statement: “Management’s task is to enforce control, to keep information contained, to pass it down in such a way that no newness occurs” (Wheatley, 2006, p. 97). This, along with much more of her and others’ wisdom, emphasizes the difference between leadership and management. Additionally, …show more content…
Management is positional. It is said that you can’t choose your boss but you choose your leader. Contrary to public belief, leaders aren’t always those in power. In tandem, those in power aren’t always utilizing leadership. While researchers have usually focused on those in power, the studies have failed to find the exact traits and behaviors needed for successful leaders. Therefore, leadership cannot be taught. However, leadership can be learned. Leadership boils down to people. A leader has followers. The leader motivates and empathizes based on what they know is important to an individual. Changing people to the better to change things for the better is the essence of leadership: walking the journey with the follower, instead of just giving directions (management).
While leadership seems to be the ideal, John Kotter says, “If you have to choose between leadership or management, choose management every time. Managers do.” While this is true, it is most applicable to measurable outcomes. When organizations are viewed as machines, management succeeds. The Newtonian view of organizations indeed calls for management, as people are seen as things. This works perfectly in theoretical practice. However, when introduced to reality, it begins to fall apart. Even though people can be treated like things, it won’t allow for creativity and growth. Managers attempt motivation through competitions and pressure, which can lead to employees using their creativity to refuse to
Studies on the subjects of leadership and management have the underlying difference between a leader and a manager as “managers maintain things and leaders change things.” Gill (2006:26) explains their difference as “Managers plan, allocate resources, administer and control whereas leaders innovate, communicate and motivate”
Although the terms “management” and “leadership” are often confused as in meaning the same there is a distinction between the words. The distinction between the words is that people manage things and lead people (Collins, 2017).
Some theorists use the terms ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ reciprocally as if they are tantamount with one another, while others use them in a very purposeful sense to express that they are, in effect, rather different (Bush, 2003). Organisational successfulness, it is generally accepted, is dependant on both competent leadership and consistent management (Dimmock and Walker, 2005) According to Grace (1995) they do not follow from one or the other, but
Prosperous businesses should ensure dedicated frontrunners and supervisors that cultivate, reinforce, and reassure member of staff endurance within a business. At hand is a substantial differentiation concerning guidance and supervision. Generally leadership can be perceived as a perception of communication and business’s visualization, whereas, management can be viewed as achievement of the business’s visualization. It is to my belief that when speaking of leadership and management, the two stands strongly connected, yet equally signify and sustain different assignment and obligations.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Much has been written about the difference between management and leadership. In the past, competent management staffs ran effective companies. In light of our ever-changing world, however, most companies have come to realize that it is much more important to lead than to manage. In today's world the old ways of management no longer work. One reason is that the degree of environmental and competitive change we are experiencing is extreme. Although exciting, the world is also very unstable and confused. In an article entitled What’s the Difference between Your Hospital and the Other? Gary Campbell states that the difference between a manager and a leader is that the manager “finds himself quite willing to
Management has changed significantly over the past 50 years. The role of leaders in an organization is an ever changing thing. At one point, a manager was also the owner of the company, and thus used a carrot and a stick to get his employees to work, just like a parent personally invested in the raising of their child. Not anymore. Nowadays, leaders are there to “serve” their employees. The focus is on motivating the individual, achieving organizational goals by integrating each and every individual into the system. We no longer rely on a one size fits all approach, and management theory is no longer focused on having a winning philosophy, or motivating large groups.
In today’s business world employees, industries, and consumers look toward company leaders like Steve Jobs (Former Apple CEO), Anne Mulcahy (Former Xerox CEO), Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO), Elon Musk (Former PayPal CEO), and Eric Schmidt (Goggle CEO) to understand the dynamic roles of leadership and management. These two allusive terms have inspired a great deal of conversation, articles, and books full of material about their true meanings. These two words have also inspired the academic world to create core and major courses in an effort to help future managers and leaders plan, organize, and lead. But what does Leadership or Management really mean and are the terms related?
In accordance with an adaptation from The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management by Alan Murray, published by Harper Business, although leadership and management must function collectively, they are not identical, however they are unavoidably connected and corresponding; any attempt to disconnect the two is liable to initiate more complications than it resolves. Nevertheless, considerable effort has been consumed outlining the dissimilarities. The manager’s responsibility is to strategize and coordinate, whereas the leader’s responsibility is to encourage and motivate. (Murray, A., 2009)
Management and leadership are viewed as two different perspectives in the business environment. As described by Dr. Warren Bennis ‘Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing’, this means that managers do things by the set rules and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company.
Leadership has been described as “a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. In the case study Josh Martin uses much different leadership techniques than Tom Saunders which, in summary, can be seen as a quite different style. In the book ‘Management’ leadership is discussed in relation to management. ”Management and
Leadership is about inspiring the confidence and support of people needed to achieve organisational goals, a dynamic relationship between leaders and group members and the facilitation of contribution (DuBrin 2016, p. 3: McShane and Von Glinow 2013, p.351). Kotter (1992, p. 102) draws a distinction between management and leadership, saying the former deals with getting things done while the latter decides what to do and why, but in practice they overlap and complement each other.
The concepts of leadership and management are often viewed in different ways with different theories and schools of thought regarding the meaning of these terms (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford, 2010). Management and leadership can be defined individually and encompass different roles and attributes, however, both management and
For a quick review, the definition of leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group or individuals, to achieve a common goal.
Peter Spurgeon and Robert Cragg (2007) contend the current attention paid to the importance of leadership has diminished the value and contribution of management. The discussion concerning leadership and management, at the most extreme, is inclined to portray leadership as 'good' and management as 'bad'. These constraints are rooted in the proposition that people do not want to be managed, with its connotations of bureaucracy and control, but are happy to follow a leader toward a vision. At the core of this perception is the belief that leaders are concerned with the future and with the people in the system, while managers are focused upon greater efficiency and immediate results.