Critically examine the differences between management and leadership, in the context of the work environment.
The following will critically examine the differences between management and leadership, in the context of the work environment. Firstly, by defining the terms leadership and management separately, and then by pointing out the differences based on theories found in current scholarly literature.
Definition of leadership:
Leadership has been defined 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 or goal” (Chemers. M, 1997)
“Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a ...view middle of the document...
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when you “set the example,” that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the relationship between you and your employees.
All situations are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation. For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.
Also note that the situation normally has a greater effect on a leader's action than his or her traits. This is because while traits may have an impressive stability over a period of time, they have little consistency across situations (Mischel, 1968). This is why a number of leadership scholars think the Process Theory of Leadership is a more accurate than the Trait Theory of Leadership.
Various forces will affect these four factors. Examples of forces are your relationship with your seniors, the skill of your followers, the informal leaders within your organization, and how your organization is organized.
Leadership is a facet of management.
Leadership and management must go hand in hand and are complimentary to each other.
Definition of management:
The business dictionary (2013) defines management as “organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise in accordance with certain policies and in achievement of clearly defined objectives”.
The Oxford dictionary’s (2013) definition of management is “the process of dealing with or controlling things or people”.
Four basic management functions as outlined by Management Innovations (2008) are;
PLANNING: Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed to attain organizational goals, outlining how the tasks must be performed, and indicating when they should be performed.
Planning activity focuses on attaining goals. Managers outline exactly what organizations should do to be successful. Planning is concerned with the success of the organization in the short term as well as in the long term.
Organizing can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed in the planning stages, to various...