Differences between Leader and Manager and Their Roles in an Organization - Coursework Example

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP Management and leadership are two concepts that are sometime used interchangeably. What is the difference between manager and leader? It is a question that has been answered in different ways. This paper details the differences between leader and manager and explains their roles in an organization. It also outlines four functions of the management and how it can help the manager in maintaining healthy organizational culture. The most relevant managerial strategies; SWOT analysis and Information System Strategy have been briefly summarised in this work. Managers and Leaders Introduction A manager is a person responsible for planning and directing the works of individuals, supervising their works and taking corrective actions when it is so required. Leader has been defined as a person or a thing that holds a dominant or superior position within its field, and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others (Business Dictionary- 2008). How managers differ from leaders A generally accepted consensus is that a manager must possess technical and logistical skills, but a leader must have people skills. A manager, no matter whether he is a manager in a government or business organization, may have obtained his position through time and efforts put in to the organization, but not as a result of his leadership qualities. Raimo P H (2007) observes that the distinction between manager and leader is besides prominent also ambiguous. While a manager is seen as an ‘operator’, ‘technician’, ‘fixer’ and ‘problem solver’, a leader is perceived as a ‘visionary’, ‘prophet’, catalyst and ‘mover-shaker’ (Raimo P Hamalainem-p 83). Manager, as compared to leader, is more administration and tool oriented. A manager’s scope of activities and functions is regarded to be quite comprehensive than that of a leader. Some managers are high quality leaders, but same time others only manage resources and are not capable of leading their subordinates. Thus, leadership is a subcategory of the management concept that focuses basically on behavioural issues. To be more specific, all managers are not necessarily leaders, but the most effective managers may have leadership qualities. Good managers always tend to be good leaders, but good leaders are not always good managers. Leadership is the process of guiding the behaviour of others towards organizational objectives. The leader in a business organization causes subordinates to behave in a particular manner and to follow a specific set of instructions through his guiding. To become an effective leader it is highly important that he should focus on all the relevant conditions of a situation, seek for opportunities and put in efforts to achieve them. From this point of view, a manager should visualize the destinations of his objectives, but a leader should look at how to get there. A leader’s works in a workplace would be more innovative and creative. But a manager’s works are of traditional characteristics. It can be easily observed from the project management that a manger who is not innovative and creative in the workplace will most likely not survive. A manager in an organization is expected to supervise, evaluate and get jobs done by others in a certain period of time, and hence he needs to be efficient enough. Time is quite significant resource for them. But, a leader in an organization is expected to use his time as well as energy more strategically. By improving the efficiency, a manger can improve his managerial skills. Generally, from the perspective of organizational behaviour, a manager should deal with administering all the relevant activities within the organization, but a leader deals with innovative ideologies and things to be done. A manager maintains organizational activities such as planning, co-ordinating, directing and controlling, but a leader develops these managerial functions with his skills and abilities. In an industrial and productive workplace situation and project implementation, a manger concentrates on the system and structures within the workplace or concerned field, but the leader concentrates on people in the same workplace. In regard to planning and all other managerial functions, a manger normally accepts status quo, but the leader challenges it. The manager always has a short range view towards all managerial actions, but the leader has a long range perspective. According to Edwin Lau (2000), the manager does things right; the leader does right things (Lau E. p 224). Both management and leadership are highly complementary functions required for the effective running of a business organization and for its ultimate success. Roles of Manager and Leader Though both managers and leaders perform different functions through different ways associated with different skills, both they are increasingly important for a healthy organizational structure. A man can become healthy if he gets his basic requirements of life like energetic food, water and shelter; likewise, an organization can achieve healthy structure if it has enough profits, customers, premises and workforces. For getting healthy, an organization needs to be maintained well effectively. This maintenance, which includes measuring, planning, co-ordinating, directing, looking back, assessing, taking stock and taking careful decisions, can be essentially done by a manger. A leader too is required for the healthy and structured growth of a business because he can take the organization in to the areas of growth, development and to achieve goals as well. Manager deals with the past performance of the business and workers, and thus he take in to account about how people performed in the past. A manager plans, co-ordinates, directs, hires, controls, measures and does all other managerial activities based on the past performance and perspective in order to make the business success. A leader also deals with same sort of activities, but he looks at people as capable of doing things beyond measurement. He deals with the future and thinks how people can perform functions so as to make organization healthy. The basic difference between manager and leader based on their roles is that the manager has subordinates, but the leader has followers. Manager possesses authority which is assigned to him and his subordinates work for him. While the manager performs planning, co-ordination, direction, controls and other functions, his subordinates works for him as they are instructed. Here, manager tell subordinates what to do, and thus it is transactional job. Leaders do not normally have subordinates. Many organizational leaders have subordinates, but it is only because of that they are managers too. A leader needs to possess some qualities that can appeal followers to be inspired. Here, a leader’s role is not transactional but transformational as he does not simply tell followers on what to do, but inspires and motivates them through his personal qualities. Four functions of Management The four functions of the management are planning, organizing, directing and controlling. All these four functions are considered to be flagships of management as it only can help maintain a healthy organizational personality and culture. Planning is the foundation area of management because all other areas of management are built based on this. Planning helps managers to decide the running route of the organization and thus it provides a structured way for the organizational culture. It is quite common that there would be some time difficulties and uncertainties that seem to be uncontrollable. Strategic planning also can be useful for the better organizational culture as it may need to alter its planned actions so as to accomplish certain goals depending on the conditions. In strategic planning, management assesses internal and external factors that are likely to affect the company and its objectives. The second function of the management is organizing. A manger must organize all iys resources more effectively. Organizing will help the manager to determine the internal configuration and to establish relationships in order to maintain a healthy organizational culture. The manager needs to look at different departments and levels of staffs. ‘Directing’ will help the manager to control and supervise the actions of the staffs. This will in turn help the workforce to achieve company’s goals and also accomplishing their personal goals. These will finally result in maintaining a healthy organizational culture within the organization. The workforce can be powered through direction with the help of motivation, effective communication, and department leaderships. Controlling, the fourth function of management, is directly related to planning because controlling looks at and ensures whether plans are properly implemented or not. The managers observe what currently happens within an organization and compare these with what was supposed to happen. They focus on correcting below standard situations and bring the results up to the expectations. Setting plans and controlling the standards include almost all managerial area within an organization like time controls, material and equipment control, cost and budgetary control, financial control and operational control. Thus, control helps management to maintain a healthy atmosphere within the organization. Organizational strategies There are numerous strategies for better leadership and managerial activities. Better control, financial control, budgetary control and other methods of performance analysis are some of the strategies that can be used by a manager and leader in order to maintain best course of actions. SWOT analysis and Information system strategy are two methods than can help managers and leaders to determine the level of the business and areas to be improved SWOT analysis SWOT analysis provides a thorough observation in to internal and external environment of a firm. SWOT analysis is an important part of strategic management and planning. The management can make use of SWOT analysis to assess the strengths and opportunities of the organization in order to maintain an effective organizational culture. Environmental factors internal to the firm can be classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T). Such an analysis of the strategic environment is referred to as a SWOT analysis. By analyzing strengths and opportunities, the managers and leaders can easily identify areas where the organization has better performances. By analyzing threats and weaknesses, the managers and leaders will come to know areas where business still needs to improve. Information System Strategy Information system strategy would be a success if the manager and leader should keep filings and records of all the relevant activities of the organization. Any organization can get advantage from avoiding wasteful efforts associated with looking for misrepresented information. Manger’s communication with the subordinates and leader’s communication with followers should be informative. Information that is relevant to the subordinators and followers must be passed to them with the standards expected. Conclusion This work outlines the difference between a leader and a manager. A manager does things right; but the leader does right things is a proverb which gives exactly how both a manager and a leader are different. A manager basically tells his subordinates on what to be done, but the leader inspires his followers towards certain courses of actions. Through SWOT analysis and Information System strategy, both mangers and leaders can assess the performance within the organization and take actions to correct deviations. 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