Leadership and Management Styles - Essay Example

Most Effective Leadership and Management Styles and Approaches Introduction Management refers to the process of making sure that an organization or business entity/corporation can remain in operation in both the current period and foreseeable future (Saunders.rit.edu, 2015). Management in its entirety as a process comprises of the very basic processes of controlling and directing a group of people or entities in order to coordinate and harmonize that group with the aim of achieving a specific goal. On the hand, leadership is an individual’s ability to motivate, influence and make it possible for other people to make contributions towards the success and effectiveness of the organizations to which they belong (Diffen.com, 2015). There are many different approaches to effective leadership and management that can be adopted by various organizations. Some of the most common methods include autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. Discussion Part 1 The terms management and leadership exhibit a number of differences and similarities between them. On the similarities front, both management and leadership processes involve making decisions about the necessary actions (Ehsani and Ehsani, 2014). Leadership and management are both known to be complete action systems. Both processes involve the establishment of relationships and creation of networks of persons with the primary objective of accomplishing a given task and following up to ensure the achievement of the same. However, as much as leadership and management share certain similarities between them; there are also differences associated with the same terms. First, managers in every organization have subordinates while leaders have followers instead of subordinates. Managers have a tendency to authoritarianism. The subordinates work for the managers with the understanding of the scope of work due for completion. Managers use a transactional style whereby, the subordinates receive financial rewards for the tasks executed. On the other hand, leadership requires the leaders to possess inspirational and persuasive skills. The entire process of leadership is transformational in nature. The leaders have to influence the followers through the use of charismatic qualities. Secondly, leaders have multidirectional influence while managers possess unidirectional authority. Management requires the production of consistency, order and achievement. However, leadership demands that leaders produce movement, change and innovation. Thirdly, through Warren Bennis work, it is apparent that leadership involves doing the right things while management involves doing things the right way. Mr. Warren further identified a manager as the person who initiates, administers, maintains and focuses on systems, places reliance on control and demands immediate results. The managers keep watch of the status quo and constantly enquire to know how and when subordinates conduct activities. The writer described a leader as a person who originates, innovates, develops, provides inspiration and focuses on people. The leaders keep their eyes on the horizon and seek to challenge the existing status quo. Part 2 The three approaches to effective leadership are autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. Under autocratic leadership, the “I tell” philosophy is employed. The managers using autocratic leadership instruct the staff about the necessary actions. The management either instructs or persuades the staff to do whatever is expected by the company. The autocratic approach works best when there is a crisis or emergency and the company is required to act immediately so as to come up with a solution. Under democratic leadership, managers allow subordinates to take part in decisions but reserve the power to withdraw and repossess the same power (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2015). The managers seek the opinions of all relevant subordinates before making the final decisions. Democratic leadership is a collegial and open style of conducting a team. Ideas circulate freely within the group and are openly discussed (Leadership-toolbox.com, 2015). The style functions best in environments where not much is taken as a constant. In Laissez-faire, the employees are trusted to make personal decisions without the interference of the management. The subordinates enjoy an almost unlimited degree of freedom. In my opinion, the best approach when managing the work of subordinates is the democratic approach. The theory behind this approach asserts that the implementer uses an “I consult” philosophy (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2015). The approach has a number of advantages which include increased motivation and creativity on the side of the employees. The major disadvantage of democratic leadership is the low speed of implementation of ideas which comes with consultative processes. Below is a practical example of the application of the democratic leadership style: Stephen, a manager of Tesco store, has worked for the company for over a decade. Stephen started out by filling shelves in the dairy section but is currently working towards the company’s foundation degree. The manager directly controls a team of about 20 departmental managers. The departmental managers are directly responsible for almost 300 persons. Stephen lets his managers make most of the operational decisions. However, if, need be, Stephen may take charge to realize a coordinated and prompt response. Stephen prefers to use the democratic approach because of the feeling that staff respond better to the same approach as compared to others. I concur with the point of view suggested by CMI 2013. The circumstances and individual characteristics of a business situation should dictate the leadership approach for implementation. Managers should consider the nature of task scheduled for execution, the strengths and weaknesses of the team and the company tradition in selecting leadership approaches. For instance, in case of an emergency, the managers/leaders would adopt an autocratic style while generally employing the democratic style. Where the employees are too many, the Laissez-faire style would be efficient. Among the Democratic leaders that I draw inspiration from are, WorldBlu CEO Traci Fenton and Groupon Malaysia CEO Joel Neoh. Personally, I would love to be democratically managed. Democratic leadership appeals to me because of the freedom that it offers. Conclusion There is no single ideal style for effective leadership and management. The circumstances and other factors such as urgency determine the type of approach required for various situations. Reference List Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2015. Leadership styles - Developing appropriate leadership styles - Tesco | Tesco case studies, videos, social media and information | Business Case Studies. [online] Available at: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/tesco/developing-appropriate-leadership-styles/leadership-styles.html#axzz3UvcXiEl8 [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015]. Diffen.com, 2015. Leadership vs Management - Difference and Comparison | Diffen. [online] Available at: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Leadership_vs_Management [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015]. Ehsani, A. and Ehsani, A., 2014. Leadership vs. Management. [online] LinkedIn Pulse. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140405095248-127785129-leadership-vs-management [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015]. Leadership-toolbox.com, 2015. The Democratic Leadership Style. [online] Available at: http://www.leadership-toolbox.com/democratic-leadership-style.html [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015]. Saunders.rit.edu, 2015. What is Management? [online] Available at: http://saunders.rit.edu/programs/undergraduate/management/what-is.php [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015]. Read More