Leadership Styles and Management Styles - Essay Example

As a function of such a definition, the reader can and should understand the management style as more of a nuts and bolts approach that tends to be somewhat formulaic and rigid whereas leadership engenders the unique ability to mold and integrate with changes as a means of seeking the best path.  It is further important to understand that such a level of approach does not specify one or the other must be engaged upon.  As such, it is possible and desirable for an individual to accomplish both of these styles of oversight in order to be an effective vehicle for change within a given institution.  Although not all individuals can fulfill the requirements of each of these categories, the individual that does is able to see from both perspectives and seek to direct the firm/group/ or entity in the most appropriate way. 

With regards to ethics, the leadership and management styles play an integral role in determining the priorities of the given individual.  One could even argue that ethics violations only spring from management styles if and when the management style is engrained within the company’s culture.  This is due to the fact that management styles are almost always formulaic and required attributes that the individual must ascribe to in order to meet the standards of the organization or group he/she is representing to the employees.  Conversely, leadership styles fall prey much more easily to ethical violations due to the fact that these are almost always more innately tied to the ability of the individual to incorporate what they have learned from past experience, as well as their own personality into the change mechanism they are attempting to integrate with. 

In order to create an ethical environment, it is incumbent upon the culture and oversight mechanisms of the firm to seek to instill a strong level of ethics into the management styles that they engender with the leadership.  In such a way, ethical decision-making and a culture of morality can be attempted to be grown from the very base levels of the way in which decisions are made within the organization's culture.  As a means of integrating this with the leadership and the styles by which they ultimately manage, the organization will maximize the potential of this having a carry-over effect and impacting upon the means by which even personal attributes impact management and leadership within such a culture.