Leadership Theories and Main Discrepancies between Management and Leadership - Term Paper Example

? Leadership and Management ABC XYZ Leadership and management are two essentials of an organization. There has been extensive research on leadership in the past five decades and scholars are still trying to provide new meaning and direction to leadership. Various scholars have proposed various leadership theories depending on certain traits, attributes and behaviours of potential leaders. They have conducted an empirical analysis to find out certain attributes and qualities which help in distinguishing an individual to be an excellent leader. The paper will discuss certain leadership taxonomies and definitions and will also explore a few leadership theories in order to get an insight into leadership. The second part of the paper will strive to find out the main discrepancies between management and leadership and the reasons as to why both are assets to an organization. Both functions are complementary to each other and without the existence of any one of the two it becomes impossible for the other to perform effectively thereby impairing organizational growth. Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Insights into leadership 5 Leadership theories 6 Leadership and management – a distinction 8 Conclusion 10 Reference 11 Introduction One of the most popular and discussed topic is leadership. Scholars have tried to define leadership in several manners. In an examination of 587 publications, at least 221 definitions of leadership had emerged. Leadership is the manner in which an individual induces aspects of respect, obedience, cooperation and loyalty among followers. Leadership in the 1930s was considered to be an area where organizations had to move depending on specifications provided by the leader. The 40’s definition of leadership focussed on the constructs of power, authority, circumstances and position. The 1950s definition emphasized on the essentials of team building and the authority the leader commanded on team members. The 1960s definition of leadership influenced followers to shared goals and vision. The 1970s leadership definition viewed a leader to have discretionary powers and 1980s the leader inspired the followers to conduct meaningful activity. The 1990s defined leadership as a combined task accomplished by both followers and leader to make certain modifications impacting common purposes. The first ten years of the twenty first century witnessed the leader to be solely accountable and responsible for all activities conducted in an organization. From the above, it may be observed that there are certain themes in leadership. These are as follows: a) Leadership is not limited to senior management members or the top boss b) Leadership helps in excelling performance level in followers c) Management and leadership are two distinct constructs d) There is a humanistic and sensitive dimension to leadership e) Leaders need to apply a host of skills, capabilities, qualities thereby undertaking a holistic approach f) An individual who has expertise in implementing, initiating and anticipating change is a successful leader (Bass & Bass, 2008) Insights into leadership Leadership styles vary from person to person. However, the manner in which one may be able to aptly distinguish various leaders depends on the manner in which they act on logic. This is the skill to interpret and analyze surroundings especially when they are challenged by some external or internal issues. Academic scholars have observed that leaders who delved deep within them to develop and understand themselves can transform their own capabilities as well as the capabilities of the organization. The effectiveness of organizations mainly depends on coordinated leadership which stems from leaders having varied levels of hierarchy. Their skills help in impacting individuals, units, teams and the overall organizational results. Academic study on leadership has highlighted that leadership significantly impact units, teams and the entire organization. Although there is vast literature on the outcomes of effective leadership and individual performance there are situation which warrant complicated collective relation (Finkelstein, Hambrick & Cannella, 2009). Academic scholars have examined three important levels of leadership according to which they perform certain organizational roles. Most organizations have leadership at the top, middle and the lower levels. These are setting directions, spanning boundaries and maintaining operations. The only distinction in setting directions at the top and the bottom levels of leadership lies in the time frame. Leaders at a higher level of hierarchy conduct boundary spanning which may be related with elements outside the organizational boundary. On the other hand, leaders at lower levels of hierarchy conduct boundary spanning which strictly lies within the organization. However, all leaders facilitate the task of coordination. In the lower levels, they directly coordinate with team members or subordinates whereas at higher levels they indirectly coordinate with subordinates. In order to create and develop a successful organization it is essential that all leaders within the firm integrate and work together to attain shared objectives and visions. Thus an effective leader performs the below mentioned functions: a) Formulating mission and vision – the leaders are the ones who help in communicating and formulating attractive and meaningful vision which the organization strives to achieve in future and accordingly devises a purpose or mission by which the organization will choose paths to attain the vision b) Shared values – leadership entails in recognizing, reinforcing and displaying certain values and cultures which supports the mission and the vision that has been formulated and communicated by the leader c) Strategy – leaders are the ones who perform strategic functions. They devise strategies especially to implement certain process and systems which will help the followers to pursue the purpose and vision of the firm d) Empowerment – effective leaders are those who like to make people accountable and responsible for their own tasks and organizational activities. They attain this by constantly motivating, inspiring and influencing the followers in a said path to achieve goals. Leadership theories The theories of leadership help in analyzing leadership behaviour, styles and various other leadership attributes. The trait theory of leadership concentrates to find constructs which leader to effectiveness and emergence in leaders. The main traits displayed by leaders are those of conscientiousness, extraversion, openness towards experience and neuroticism. The next leadership approach is the behavioural theory. They connect particular behaviours which distinguishes efficient leadership. The behaviours to initiate coordination and structure in an organization have been favourably linked with organizational outputs like turnover, job attitude of subordinates, organizational, subordinate and group performance. The third important leadership theory is the leader member exchange theory (LMX). According to this theory, leaders form distinct patterns of rapport with followers which may be classified into in groups and out groups. The in group members are those on whom the leader bestows trust, allocates tasks to out group members and have a track record of excellent performance. On the contrary, the leader may not directly communicate with out group members and most instructions are passed to the out group members by the in group members. Thus, the LMX theory focuses on the relationship between a leader and subordinates. The next approach to leadership is the transformational theory which has been researched for the past two decades. The main constructs of transformational leadership behaviour are intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, inspirational motivation and idealised influence. The upper echelons approach to managing strategically is the next approach to leadership. Empirical evidence on this leadership approach displays the actions and features of strategic leaders and connects with firm performance and strategy and also interpersonal relations with the performance of units or divisions in the firm (Resick et al. 2009). Yet another theory on leadership, tries to establish leadership as a set of distributed and shared roles which are played by various leaders. The concept of shared leadership is used synonymously with teams in which each member of the team take on the function of a leader to reap from the strengths of team members and achieve organizational objectives. By examining the above six approaches to leadership, it may be inferred that academic studies on leadership may be differentiated on the basis of disciplinary background and theoretical examination. Thus, there are two important dimensions of leadership – analysis levels wherein the levels of leadership may be manifested and the position or hierarchy which leaders enjoy in organizations. Further empirical studies on leadership have determined that in order to find out the organizational outcomes, strategic leadership has been thoroughly examined. On the other hand, the other four approaches, LMX, transformational, trait and behavioural are often related with individual qualities of leaders. Also team level study has tried to assess both strategic and transformational leadership (DeChurch et al. 2010). Leadership and management – a distinction There is an increasing scholarly debate on the distinction between leadership and management. It has been observed that not all supervisors exercise leadership and not all leaders act as managers. There is also a construct of informal leadership in which the leader may not be involved in performing management roles. According to Bass (2008), there exists and overlap between leadership and management. However, the two constructs performs totally distinct roles. Academic scholars agree that both managers and leaders contribute to an organization in distinct manners. Managers are in favour of maintaining status quo and stability in firms and leaders are interested in changing and going for new approaches and constructs. Thus, managers are the ones who are responsible, accountable, exercise power in order to accomplish tasks. On the other hand, leaders are those who try to gain commitment from followers and understand the beliefs and values of people. According to another academic scholar, John Kotter, management and leadership are separate yet complementary systems of activities in firms. According to him the process of leadership helps in aligning shared vision with communication, developing organizational vision and finally motivating individuals to perform organizational tasks by empowering them through aspired fulfilment of needs. In perfect contrast to this, the process of management entails budgeting and planning, staffing and organizing and resolving issues and controlling. Management in an organization helps in stabilizing and decreasing the level of uncertainty. Management helps in producing services and products and it is also their responsibility to maintain a consistent level of quality in the services and products. In fact, the function of the management is to implement the direction and vision which are formulated by leaders, handle day to day issues in activities and carry out functions like coordination and staffing in the organization. In other words, for an organization it is extremely crucial to have an effective management system (Lunenburg, 2011). According to academic scholars, leaders are individuals who help organizations to thrive in ambiguous, turbulent and volatile environment. Effective leaders act as catalysts in driving an organization to attain future prospects and enhance growth by determining potential opportunities and thereby rapidly exploiting and gaining from these opportunities. The main crux of leadership lies in building a strong vision, driving for change and empowerment. It has a lot to do with behaviour than with the qualities or attributes of an individual. In a fast paced world, the need for effective leaders are growing and leadership does not stem from a hierarchy. In an organization, leaders may be observed even at the bottom or middle of the hierarch. It is not necessary that leaders in an organization may be found to exist only at the top level (Kotter, 2013). There may be certain discrepancies between a leader and a manager. Excellent managers may not be excellent leaders and vice versa. Excellent skills of management help in changing the vision of a leader into action plans and successful implementation. In fact, academic scholars have further observed that effectively manning an organization especially in the implementation phase helps in favourable growth of the organization. The success of an organization is dependent on the combined forces of efficient management and leadership. This is especially true for organizational structures which are based on teams. In teams, the role of leadership is extended to cross departmental teams and work groups. Hence this helps to provide increase chances of input from all the members of a group. It is extremely necessary that an organization has a management and an effective leadership. These two must work together. Any efforts taken to separate management and leadership will result in issues. A list of discrepancies has been composed by Warren Bennis on his book ‘On Becoming a Leader’. These are as follows: a) The main function of a leader is to innovate and a manager performs the function of administration. b) The task of developing things are accredited to a leader whereas a manager performs the function to maintain things c) The main emphasis of a leader is on people whereas the main emphasis of a manager is on structure and systems d) The leader instigates trust in followers whereas the manager exercises control e) The leader takes and acts according to a long term view whereas the manager acts on a short term view f) It is the responsibility of a leader to ask why and what and the manager usually asks when and how g) The leader strives and craves for more whereas the manager always eyes on the bottom h) The leader is the one who thinks about ideas whereas the manager merely imitates the leader to carry out tasks i) The leader challenges status quo whereas the manager is one who accepts status quo j) Lastly, the ‘leader does the right thing’ whereas the ‘manager does things right’ Management scholar, Peter Drucker recognized the idea of knowledge worker. In today’s ever changing organizations most people usually rely on supervisors to define specific purposes other than providing them certain objectives which have to be attained. It is the sole responsibility of the manager to organize their subordinates because it helps in maximizing efficiency, nurturing their skills, inspire outcomes and develop knowhow and talent. The term knowledge worker has become synonymous with teams and groups and this is a feature which is observed in most organizations (The Wall Street Journal, 2013). Conclusion Leadership and management are both essential functions of an organization. Leaders and managers are found in all hierarchies – top, middle and bottom levels of the organization. In order to effectively run an organization to a path of growth it is essential for both mangers and leaders to act and work together in order to effectively communicate and coordinate across the organization (Caughron & Mumford, 2012). Leaders are the ones who take strategic decision and managers are the ones who help leaders in recognizing certain alternatives to effective decision making. Firms provide the managers with power and authority to carry out regular activities and show the way. But it is not certain whether managers would be able to lead the organization in an effective manner. In order to achieve higher levels of performance it is essential that organizations have a blend of strong management and leadership in individuals. Leaders are needed to innovate and lead change whereas managers are needed to imitate leaders, help, maintain and develop smooth and effective organizational functioning (Lunenburg, 2011). Reference Bass, B.M. & Bass, R., 2008. The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications. New York: Free Press. Caughron, J.J. & Mumford, M.D., 2012. Embedded leadership: how a leader’s superiors impact middle-management performance? The Leadership Quarterly, 23, pp.342 – 353. DeChurch, L.A., Hiller, N.J., Murase, T., Doty, D. & Salas, E., 2010. Leadership across levels: levels of leaders and their levels of impact. The Leadership Quarterly, 21, pp. 1069 – 1085. Kotter, J., 2013. Management is (still) not leadership. Harvard Business Review. Available at [Accessed 25 April 2013]. Lunenburg, F. C., 2011. Leadership versus management: a key distinction – at least in theory. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 14(1), pp. 1 – 4. Resick, C.J., Whitman, D.S., Weingarden, S.M. & Hiller, N.J., 2009. The bright-side and the dark-side of CEO personality: examining core self-evaluations, narcissism, transformational leadership, and strategic influence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, pp. 1365 – 1381 The Wall Street Journal, 2013. What is the difference between management and leadership? Available at [Accessed 25 April 2013] Finkelstein, S., Hambrick, D.C. & Cannella, A.A., 2009. Strategic leadership: Theory and research on executives, top management teams, and boards. New York: Oxford University Press. Read More