Management Versus Leadership - Essay Example

Management versus leadership In many cases people have mistaken leadership and management. But, according toNorthouse (2009, p.11), many scholars argue that leadership and management are two different constructs whose functions and characteristics are different. Skills and responsibilities that are performed by a manager and a leader also totally differ from each other. Management involves accomplishing certain tasks and master routines while leadership involves influencing others and creating visions to cause change.

In the health field, a leader’s main function is to ensure that the rest of the employees are highly motivated. He/she also ensures that changes that are required in the sector are well implemented and upheld in order to increase the quality of healthcare. An effective leader must be a communicator (Maxwell, 2007, p. 69). This is because his main focus is the people unlike a manager, whose main focus is the management of work. A leader must be able to talk with people about the issues affecting them and how to go about them.

According to Maxwell 2007, it is only a good communicator that will be able to convince the rest of the employees to follow his beliefs. In the healthcare field, the leader will not only be leading the workers and the employees in the organization, but also the people receiving the healthcare services. Thus, in order to maintain control of all these many people, good communication skills are a very essential factor. In this case, good communication skills not only imply fluent speaking, but also include both clarity and humility.

An effective manager should coordinate the staff to work well and in order while an effective leader has a duty to inspire, empower and encourage the employees of the organization (Moyles, 2006, p. 6). The employees in a healthcare organization might be faced with tragedies, for instance of failed plans or difficulties at work. It is thus the duty of a leader to ensure that the workers are empowered and motivated. Hence, a leader should be equipped with ideas and thoughts that can impact on other people.

The manager however will only ensure that healthcare activities are well coordinated and in line with plans previously made. According to Maxwell (2007, p. 74), an effective leader should be creative in solving problems. Northhouse (2009) also points out that an effective leader should be able to create a vision for the rest of the organization to follow. Unlike a manager who will just focus on allocating resources for an already created vision, a leader has to be creative and come up with new ideas.

The healthcare field is an industry that consists of a lot of changes and development. Thus, to keep up with the change a leader should be able to structure new strategies and visions. In connection to that, for a leader to be considered effective he should be able to come up with new goals for the organization (Moyles, 2006, p. 6). Considering the rate of innovation in the healthcare field, a healthcare organization will need new goals to be set once the current ones have been achieved in order to keep the organization updated with the modern innovation (Jasper & Jumaa, 2008, p.182). Effective leaders build teamwork in the organization while the managers’ responsibility is to organize the staff members to work with a sense of direction (Moyles, 2007, p.6). Northhouse (2009, p.10) also articulates that an effective leader should be able to align people and to build teams and coalitions while the manager is only involved with staffing, job placements and performance appraisals.

For the workers in the healthcare field to be knowledgeable, committed and self-driven, the leader has to come in and impact such factors on them. Hence, with a leader, dedication and commitment are achieved but with a manager, well organized employee structure is achieved. For a leader to be counted as effective, he should be considerate and equal to all the staff members in the organization. Maxwell (2007), refers to a leader as a ‘people’s person’. He states out that the leader should place him or herself in other people’s shoes.

This means that he should not create goals which are too high for the staff to achieve or which might frustrate the staff. Looking specifically at the healthcare field, it is clear that some working environment might be too tough for the staff. This is because most of their work will involve speed and accuracy. Therefore, the leader should take note of exercising care and concern when dealing with the workers. On the other hand, the manager does not necessarily have to be concerned with the staff welfare; his duty is to just ensure that the staffs perform their duties as required (Maxwell, 2007).

References Jasper, M., & Jumaa, M. (2008). Effective Healthcare Leadership. Oxford, U.K: John Wiley & Sons. Maxwell, J. C. (2007). Be a People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships. (2nd ed.). U.S.A: David C Cook. Moyles, J. (2006). Effective Leadership and Management in the Early Years. New York, U.S.A: McGraw-Hill International. Northhouse, P. G. (2009). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (5th ed.). London, United Kingdom: SAGE. Cook, S. (2009). Effective Manager. United Kingdom: IT Governance Ltd.