The Concept of Leadership and Management - Research Paper Example

Business Research Report Name Professor Institution Course Date Business Research Report Executive Summary Leadership and management two of the most researched topics in organization behavior. Despite the differences, the two terms often overlap giving people more problems to different them. This report contributes to the existing literatures as it attempts to describe and discuses the difference between leadership and management. To be able to provide tangible explanation and tangible evidence of the differences, the report will conduct a comprehensive research about leadership and management in various organizations. In its presentation of the market research, the report will provide the background of the study; outline Research Aim and Objectives, discuss Research Significance, Research Method & Data Collection Method, Research Sample & Sampling Technique and Proposed Timeline. The finding of this study is that leadership and management are two different factors but are both highly needed for better performance of the organization. Table of Contents Business Research Report 2 Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Background of the study 5 3.0 Research Aim & Objectives 5 4.0 Literature Review 6 4.1 The concept of leadership and management 6 4.2 Different definitions of leadership and management defined by different scholars of business studies 7 4.3 How leadership and management affect the organizational performance 9 4.4 The difference of management and leadership actions in small scale and large scale organizations 12 5.0 Women in leadership and management 14 6.0 Research Significance 15 7.0 Research Method and Data Collection Method 16 8.0 Research Sample & Sampling Technique 16 9.0 Proposed Timeline 17 10.0 Conclusion 18 11.0 References 20 1.0 Introduction In this 21st century which is marred with stiff competition in organization and institutions, comparison and contrast between leadership and managements has become a perpetual thing among business authors, scholars and theorists (Kotter 2011). There are numerous literatures are already committed to describing and discussing the important and role of leadership in organization and it’s a trendy topic in plethora of business literature (Kouzes & Posner 2012, p.43). Despite, also popular, management and role of manager literatures has not reached that of leadership hence management is regarded not to be so popular among the two. Several years scholars have conducted numerous research to differentiate these two concept but the results have often shown some overlapping concept which sometimes are used alternatively. However, Lopez (2014, p.98) stated that due importance of these two concepts differences have been found in terms of relevance and function which of importance to business students and practitioners. Hence this report builds from the past researchers to demonstrate the differences between leadership and management. In addition it will discuss how women perform in leadership and management. The research has been conducted and will provide background of the study; outline Research Aim and Objectives, discuss Research Significance, Research Method & Data Collection Method, Research Sample & Sampling Technique and Proposed Timeline. 2.0 Background of the study Leadership, as defined by Balon (2014, p.722), is linked with the people in the organization while management is responsible for the activities and control of actions in an organization. Accordingly, Carter (2009, p.144) stated that leadership is the oldest concept which has been studied by the researches in the past while management is the second oldest concept. Both these concepts usually involve the study focusing on different theories provided by different scholars and researchers but having a clear concept of the difference between both leadership and management is hardly ever done. This change surely needs to be investigated and therefore, a research on this element is necessary for the understanding of different views on small scale and large scale organizations. 3.0 Research Aim & Objectives The main aim of this study is to analyze the difference between leadership and management and how each concept affects the organizational performance in small scale and large scale organizations. The objectives set for this study are as follows: 1. To investigate the concept of Leadership and Management 2. To outline different definitions of leadership and management defined by different scholars of business studies 3. To find out how leadership and management affect the organizational performance 4. To figure out the difference of management and leadership actions in small scale and large scale organizations 4.0 Literature Review 4.1 The concept of leadership and management The concept of leadership and management involves definition and elements make the definition and the two factors. The research by Ali (2013, p.39) has found out that there are several definitions which are attributed to the term leadership. The definitions can be attributed to the fact that there are several styles of leadership including participative, transformational, transactional, Laissez-Faire and autocratic among others. Similarly there are leadership traits which are found in one style of leadership and not the other. These traits of leadership are derived from The Big Five Model of Personality and they consist of agreeableness, urgency, adjustment, openness to experience or conscientiousness (Lussier & Achua 2004, p.47). Despite of having much definition, the universally accepted definition includes the word “influence” and “followers”. Therefore, according to Webb (2007, p.53), leadership is defined as practice where an individual influence the followers towards achieving a common goal. A leader must have communication, interpersonal and technical skills to influence and motive others towards the set goal. Management on the other hand, is defined as the function which coordinates efforts of staffs to attain objectives and goals by making use of the available resources effectively and efficiently (Luis, Balkin, & Cardy 2008, p.12). The components of management include planning, staffing, organizing, directing, forecasting, coordinating and controlling (Lopez 2014, p.101). 4.2 Different definitions of leadership and management defined by different scholars of business studies Leadership concept has been a major topic for social and political theorists form the time of Aristotle (Lopez (2014, p.102). However, the topic is regarded as one of the most discussed and least comprehended concept in business arena. With more 7000 articles and book published and more that 350 definition about leadership, there have been claims that there is no universally agreed definition of this concept (Lim & Daft 2004, p.5). However, one definition or description which includes the basic components of leadership is one which was stated by the scholars Lussier and Achua. In their statement, Lussier and Achua (2004, p.41) described ‘Leadership’ as an influence form of relationship which exists between the leaders and their followers who aim for changes which effectively echo their common goal. Sometimes numerous great managers have been regarded as great leaders in business (Zaleznik 2005, p.73). The statement justify why leadership has been used synonymously with management. However, recent researches points out that these two terms which seems synonymous but are actually different. Ali (2013, p.38) argued that leadership involves personal skills sets which can be used in several situations. Nevertheless, Bolman and Deal (2014, p.27) contended that a manager has to deal with interpersonal factor of leading and administrative duties of planning, directing, organizing and controlling. In a nutshell, a leadership is about innovating while management is about administering. Samson and Daft (2005, p.27) opined that in business, management is defined as a function which coordinates efforts of staffs to attain objectives and goals by making use of the available resources effectively and efficiently. However, according to Henri Fayol management implies planning, staffing, organizing, directing, forecasting, coordinating and controlling of resource and an organization in order to achieve a set goal (Lopez 2014, p.101). According to Faltin (2010, p.13) Peter Drucker also defined management as an activity which involves two factors, marketing and innovation. His definition is inclined towards strategic management. Selznick (2011, p.67) described leadership as the art of aligning individuals, motivating and inspiring them, and driving the change agenda in an organization. Warren Bennis, one of the renowned leadership theorists stated that leadership is concerned with innovation and initiation while management is often concerned with copying and managing status quo (Lopez 2014, p.103). Actually, management is just about managers copying a leader and communicating the philosophies and rules of the organization to employees and making sure they conform to them. In most organization people visit, one can easily notice that people obey and fear managers them most. The fear that they have for the manager make them abides by rules and work towards achieving organizational goals. According to Holmes (2012, p.31) this nature of managers make them, be defined as “good soldiers” in that their maintain rules, order and decision made by top managers. The fear and rule conformity from employees is resulted due to the fact that they do not want to lose their jobs. As a result they may do anything, including manipulating results and time to their advantage. Holmes (2012, p.43) argued that managers also wants them to be respected and be allowed to enjoy power not unlike leaders who keeps close to the employees and are ready for consultations. This is why some description of management holds that the relationship between managers and the employees is often pegged on the hierarchical management system as hardly by means of personal ones (Carter 2009, p.144). With their roles well outlined, managers’ role is to maintain daily operations of the organization to enable the operation cogs remain well-oiled. In other they are concerned with set goals and momentum of operation rather than employees and organization behavior. Managers are often seen as decision makers who look around the market trends so as to come up with strategic decision for competitive (Ali 2013, p.39). In this context managers normally see themselves as sole decision makers and might not include others. This is different with leaders who are seen as influencers of the decision making. Northouse (2009, p.78) asserted that leaders allow people to participate in decision making and only serve to positively influence the direction of the decision. Unlike management, leadership requires one to base their decision making on departmental reports to analyze the situation of the company and come up with future strategies. A transformational leader will be keen to overlook the quarterly bottom line of the company and opt for numerous quarters which can yield long term growth. According to Carter (2009, p.142) leadership is defined as an art of using experience, direction and skills to help a person enhance his or her performance. He went ahead to state argue that leadership primarily of giving employees feedback to strengthen their operation whilst recommending ways to improve. The practice implies that employees can always improve but what they lack is the motivation. The situation normally arise when organization have a manager rather than a leader. 4.3 How leadership and management affect the organizational performance Kotter is one of the famous and prominent scholar and theorists of leaders and management and has been recognized for its contribution in terms of publication on organizational performance through leadership and management. Kotter (2011) suggested that all managers should understand to manage and lead staffs, activities and every other thing within the organization. Kouzes and Posner (2012, p.103) on the other hand contended that if the organization is not managed and led properly can perform dismally. In other words there is a correlation between leadership and management, and organizational performance. It is therefore held that positive or effective leadership and management have positive effects on organizational performance. Leadership impacts performance on the perspective of goal setting, vision and mission creation and communication, motivation, and influence on the organizational culture. On the other hand, management influences organizational performance on the basis of administrative tasks like selection, recruitment, workforce planning, training and development, job analysis and design, benefits and compensation, and performance appraisal. Lussier and Achua (2004, p.47) posited that leadership impacts organizational performance by creating and communicating mission and vision of the company to employees. When the vision and mission of the company is well articulated, employees conduct daily activities while understanding the purpose and direction where the company is headed (Lussier & Achua 2004, p.48). This makes it hard for them to deviate from goals and objectives of the organization. Whereas mission entails how the firm company will reach where they intends, vision outlines where the firm want to be in near future. Leadership therefore clearly state mission and vision of the company to ensure smooth running of task or operations hence positive organizational performance (Lim & Daft 2004, p. 78). Leadership also rallies the employees to pursue such vision and mission. This is so different from management who simply sets the mission and vision but does not influence the staff to pursue them. However, management impacts organizational through recruitment and selection. Teena and Sanjay (2014, p.34) stated that HR managers now conduct market research to understand the job market and how it can align the recruitment needs of the organization. This is followed by recruitment of the right candidate for a particular job description and design (Teena & Sanjay 2014, p.38). An employee with special skill required for the job find it easy to work to achieve the organization goals. For instance, at Apple Inc. if the HR manager is recruiting for production department they will look for techno-savvy who is up to date with current trends of the information technology sector. Staffs who understand the market produce product unique products which attract more sales hence improving organizational performance. Webb (2007, p.54) claimed that since leadership deals with interpersonal skills, leaders often create organizational culture to promote the ideals of the organization as opposed to personal cultures. Organizational culture is a uniting factor and brings staffs together to work just like family members towards achieving a common goal. Therefore leadership which has managed to unite the management and staff influence them to perform well (Selznick 2011, p.61). Leadership also influences organizational performance through motivation. Participative and transformational leaders normally allow staff to take part in decision making on hence making them feel valued. The process motivates employees as they feel that their input is highly regarded within the organization. Similarly, these types of leaders motivate employees through rewards and encouragement to perform well (Northouse 2009, 27). Staff themselves who correctly apply the motivation gets the job satisfaction, and the positive performance leads them to accomplish their desires and successfully attains the organizational goals. Management on the other hand impact performance management through training and development. Managers deals with administrative duties and put high regards to training and development. In fact most managers believe that companies which perform well do so due training and development. According to Brauns (2013, p.1406) training and development is the practice of impacting knowledge, competence and skills on people to be able to do a specific task. Employees who understand his or her task and the market needs produce quality product which attract high sales hence creating high organizational performance. 4.4 The difference of management and leadership actions in small scale and large scale organizations Even though leadership and management are strongly essential in small and large organization, the level of leadership and management greatly differs. The difference lies in the size of the organization. While a small organization normally have up to 50 employees, large size organization can have more than 250 employees. According to Scott (2008, p.18) leading few people is moderately easier compared to large number of people. Leadership sometimes normally demands leaders to have one-one interpersonal communication with a particular employee to understand what affects their performance at the organization (Northouse 2009, p.39). This process can only happen when the number is small, hence leadership favour small organization in this perspective. On the other, it is hard to inspire and motivate large number of people in the organization. Webb (2007, p.55) pointed out that the argument is that people number of different personality, attitude, and perception hence may need different form of motivation. Another aspect of the organization which makes leadership and management different in small and large of organization is the organizational structure. Small organizations have few management layers which are often flat. Large organization has several layers with many managerial areas. The fact that large organizations have many layers of management makes it hard to motivate employees and rally them to achieve a common goal (Scott 2008, p. 39). The employees belongs to different departments hence cannot participate in decision making of other department hence pulling towards a common goal therefore become a complex issue. In addition, Northouse (2009, p.56) argued that the CEO could be a leader but since the structure is tall he cannot have contact with employees so as to inspire them due to department heads. This is one of the reasons why small organizations have inspired employees compared to large organizations. Leadership often involves people in decision making. The process of decision making therefore becomes easy in small organizations with few numbers of people and structure compared to large organizations (Luis, Balkin & Cardy 2008, p.21). Large companies have many layers hence more consultation are need before final decision is reached. Managing large organizations is also difficult compared to small organizations. For instance, training and development for large organization need proper planning and allocation of more resources. The process could take many people and large budget which ways down the company. Job design which is also the work of managers is simple in small organizations compared to large organizations (Teena & Sanjay 2014, p.40). In large, roles and responsibility allocated to one department may conflict leading to task duplication. The situation is not highly witnessed in small organizations. In other words, controlling as a factor of management is very difficult in large organization as opposed to small ones. 5.0 Women in leadership and management The ongoing debate over the years has been how to enable more women get into management and leadership position in the organization (Stephens 2013, p.41). Even though a step has been and seen more women get into workforce, the number is still not convincing. The situation was depicted even during my group work where I was the only lady in the group. Despite unlimited number my leadership in the group was exemplary and highly contributed towards the completion of this report. This is a manifestation that women also possess leaders or management skills just as men. Vanderbroeck (2010, p.765) claimed that numerous researches have shown that women have special skills like secretarial skills which men may not pose. There are several examples of women in leadership and management who have taken their organization to great heights. Angela Merkel, Tabitha Karanja, Stella Kilonzo, Susan Wojcicki, Folorunsho Alakija, Olajumoke Adenowo, Rosie Batty, Jillian Broadbent, and Kate Carnell are some of the women who have shown their effective leadership and management skills in organization and institutions they work for. However, male dominance is still observed as most men still think most tasks are reserved for them. According to Jonsen et al (2010, p.554), more studies reveals that gender stereotypes keeps women away from leadership and management positions in the work places, institutions or groups. The authors found out that there are three different perspectives regarding gender and leadership, namely gender-blind, perception-creates-reality and gender-conscious. One of the paradigms they propose is that women and men are actually not that different, but people perceive them as such when it comes to their leadership and management that is what creates the difference (Weyer 2007, p.485). Culture is another obstacle to women who inspire to get to leadership and management. For instance, eastern culture especially in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Yemen and Bahrain among others bars women from holding top level management and leadership in organizations. Vanderbroeck (2010, p.766) pointed out that cultures where women are discriminated from leadership and management has created an attitude and perception that woman cannot provide quality work at the organization. The result has been that most women are left at home to do house chores. 6.0 Research Significance The significance of the concept of leadership and management has increased tremendously in the business field in recent years. As mentioned by Selznick (2011), that is why there is a need to study in depth the two concepts so that a clear thin line could be drawn. Accordingly, this study would help in investigating and identifying the true meaning of leadership and management for the people of the organizations in order to develop further by leading and managing the organizational activities effectively. The significance of this research also emerges from the belief that outcomes of the present study can assist business students, upcoming managers and leaders in getting new practices which can build better management and leadership on the running and organization or institutions (Shahrill 2014, p.525). In addition, this research could be for considerable support for curricula developers, since it could be of several benefits for business teaching and learning. The research also has the possibility of contributing towards the discussion on the level of organizational performance and how it has been contributed by leadership and management in Qatar (Shahrill 2014, p.528). 7.0 Research Method and Data Collection Method The research method that would be adopted for this study is the quantitative research method. This method is chosen based on the majority of the past studies on this topic. Additionally, the findings of quantitative researches are more reliable because they are free of biasness and present more authentic information which cannot be generalized (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). The data will be collected with the help of close-ended questionnaires. Close-ended questions will help the participants to present their views and ideas as per the research objectives without generalizing the responses (Bryman and Bell, 2011). The study will apply quantitative techniques to assess the concepts and differences between leadership and management in connection with the three research questions above 8.0 Research Sample & Sampling Technique The research sample for this study will include 50 different employees from different organizations functioning at small scale and large scale (Qatar Petroleum and Hamad Medical Corporation). Non-probability sampling technique will be used for this study as it gives the researcher a choice to choose the participant for the study which are easily available and have no difficulty in contacting them (Neuman, 2011). The G*Power computer program, largely used for statistics, will be employed to calculate the number of respondents needed for the set of tests (Faul et al.2009, p.1153).The tool utilizes a statistical power of up to 0.8 and an alpha correlation level of up to p= 0.05. n=200 will be used to designate the sample population. The questionnaire will also incorporate the use of the Likert scale to measure the degree of the phenomena being asked. These will include whether leadership and management should be linked, whether there can be one or more leaders in the organization and whether women and women can equally be managers or leaders. The research participants (company staff at Qatar Petroleum and Hamad Medical Corporation) will rate their emotional responses by means of a Likert scale within the range of “agree to disagree” as shown below in the outcome of the questionnaire in figure 1. Figure 1: Questionnaire outcomes 9.0 Proposed Timeline The projected timeline for completing this research study is shown by the given table based on 10 week’s time. The timeline is depicted in Gantt on the figure 2 below. Figure 2: gantt chart of proposed timeline 10.0 Conclusion This empirical research was an endeavor attempt to explore the concept and differences between leadership and management. The research has discovered that many despite being concepts that were discovered long time ago, various researchers failed to differentiate the two making people to use them alternatively. In addition, the fact that leadership and management have several definitions makes them have no globally accepted definition. The paper has found out the major difference in leadership and management lies in the relevance and functions of the leader and a manager. Literatures reviewed in this report have shown that a leader is concerned with employees’ behavior and their welfare while managers are often concerned with administrative duties of the company. Other researchers have also claimed that while leaders’ nurtures and motivates employees to achieve organizational and personal goals, managers often leans towards rules, administration and process which sustain the operations. However, despite the differences, the two concepts are relevant for the modern organization since they have their own merits and demerits. Nevertheless, leadership has minimal demerits hence 21st century companies highly need leadership more than management. 11.0 References Ali, A 2013, How to differentiate between ‘Leadership’ and ‘Management’ Function in Organization: A Review of Scholarly Thoughts, International Journal of Economics Business and Management Studies – IJEBMS, Vol. 2, No.1, pp. 38-44. Balon, R 2014, Leadership versus Management, Academic Psychiatry, Vol.38, No.6, pp.720- 722. Brauns, M 2013, .Aligning Strategic Human Resource Management to Human Resources, Performance and Reward. International Business & Economics Research Journal , Vol.12, No,11, pp.1405-1410. Bolman, L & Deal, T 2014, Leadership and management. Christian Youth Work in Theory and Practice: A Handbook, SCM Press. Bryman, A & Bell, E 2011, Business research methods, (3rd ed,), Oxford University Press, Oxford. 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