This essay will be based on leadership and management in an organisation.
Leadership and management is at times confusing, they can be used in place of each other. However there is a distinctive different between both leadership and Management. This essay will examine both management and leadership, analysis will be made to see which of this is important, Hence organisation should adopt or make use of. It doesn’t have to do someone being intelligent or alluring. Also it cannot be said that leadership is better than management because, if there was no management, organisations with different parts will be disorganised which will in turn affect their existence.
Leadership and management take place in an institution known as an organisation.
Defining organisation is quite a complex one, however different researchers have defined it based on their own opinion.
(Mullins,2005) as cited by Senior and Flemming(2006,p.4) defined organisation as an individual and groups interact within a formal structure. Structure created is created by management to establish relationships between individuals and groups, to provide order and systems and to direct efforts to carry out goal seeking activities.
An Organisation is a collective plan which search for combined objective and controls its act and has a border separating it from its setting.
According to Statt,B(1991) he defined organisation as a group of people brought together for the purpose of achieving certain goal.
Both definitions have recognised the interaction of people to achieve a common purpose, the process of coordination these activities to achieve a common goal is known as Management.
An organisation is categorised by size, sector and type.
The above chart shows the different types of Firms in the United Kingdom.
“Source: Business for Foundation Degree and higher awards by Dransfied,R et al(2004.p.207)”
Aims of an Organisation
As stated earlier, an organisation is set up to achieve a common goal. An organisation needs to have its aim and goals in order for it to succeed. Although, different organisation have different goal.
What is Leadership?
The term leadership have been given different meanings by theorist.
“ Rauch & Behling (1984)as cited by Yukl ,G(2006,pg.6) leadership is a method of influencing or controlling an organised group of people in order to achieve a set goal.”
Although other researchers have also argued that leadership is an individual’s capability of inspiring, influencing and enabling others to put in efforts towards the achievement of success and effectiveness of an organisation. (House et al, 1999)
A leader is meant to carry out specific selected leadership role, while a follower
is a person who accepts that a leader provides direction on the work set. A follower is meant to do what they are asked, although they could also help to perform the duties in an organisation.
Leadership involves a method where deliberate authority is exerted by one person over other people in an organisation to structure, direct, and smooth the progress of the organisation. However, most practitioners appear to think that leadership is an observable fact that organisations need for effective day to day running.
Leadership skills
According Hersey and Blanchard (1988) as cited by Dransfield, R.et al(2004) leadership arises when an individual tries to influence the actions of a group of people or an individual.
Skills are cultured capacity in accomplishing goals through effectiveness. There are various types of skills required of a leader. They are explained below;
Interpersonal skills:
this involves the manner in which a leader interacts with followers or deal with them. It is also known as communication skills, a leader is meant to communicate what needs to be done effectively. For example if a leader does not communicate properly with a follower, he/she might not want to do as she is told.
Decision making and problem solving:
for effectiveness a leader should be able to make decisions considering the future and the present situation. That if there a situation, a leader should be to think about the situation, if it is critical then he needs to make a conclusion at that time.
All these skills are essential in leadership for effective running of an organisation.
Theories of Leadership
Most leadership theories in the past used to concentrate mainly on the
“Characteristics of the leader:
which involves traits, behaviour influence e.t.c” (Yulk,G.2006.pg 12)
“Characteristics of the follower
: involves traits, trust , task commitment and effort.”
“Characteristics of the situation”
: involves the type of organisational unit, position power an authority, task interdependence.”
These three variables contributes toward effectiveness of leadership
Recently, researchers have developed other theories of leadership.. They are explained below:
Trait theories:
this approach is based on the hypothesis that some people are born to be leaders. They possess leadership characteristic such as values, skill and motives.
Styletheories:
also known as the behaviour approach. This is the way in which a leader handles different situations in different ways.
According to Hersey and Blanchard (1977) he classified leadership syle in accordance with situation arising. These are:
Telling:
it isalso known as Autocratic:this style of leadership style takes place in an organisation where the leader makes all the decisions based on what he thinks is right and then communicate his decision to the staffs, without consulting the members or staff about what their views or opinion.
This style tends to be more controlling and demotivating resulting into dissatisfaction of followers.
Selling style also known asPersuasive Democratic:
“this means that leaders make the decisions anyway and or make the effort to encourage the followers that it is the right decision..
This means that in one way or the other the leader is still trying to carry them along with what he the decisions made. He can still welcome their own ideas if they wish to contribute. Although, it slows down the decision making process
Consult Style:
Leaders ask for the opinion of the follower, that is he carries them along by letting them have a say, but then his own decision is final.
Joins Style:
thedecision making process is based on an agreement between leader and follower. The followers are left to carry out the task, all the does is to identify the task. This type of style requires more maturity from the followers.
As stated earlier, researchers have viewed leadership from different perspective.
According to Blake and Mouton’s (1991) managerial grid also known as Leadership Grid they both examined two basic measurement of leadership.
The management grid illustrates:
A) the concern for people and production in an organisation.they have labelled They modeled these permutations as a grid; one axis for people concern and one for task concern with nine points allotted to each axis (1 = low and 9= high).
Effectiveness of leadership
For there to be an effective leadership, there must be a kind of trust between a follower and a leader.
It is quite complex to assess the effectiveness of leadership as there are so many ways in which the effectiveness of leadership can be measured. Effective leadership is based on the behaviour in which a leader uses to influence its followers, which could be either directly or indirectly. Direct and indirect leadership go hand in hand, that is it can be used constantly to increase effectiveness.
Although, most researchers assess the effectiveness of a good leadership based on the actions used to control followers. A good leader should be able to come up with a way to guide its followers, by influence and not just about commanding. In order for there to be effective leadership, a leader must be able to convince its members, so that the organisation’s objective will be accomplished.
Another frequent measure of the effectiveness of leadership is the mind-set of followers towards the leader. More often followers mind-set is assess through conducting an interview or questionnaires. A measure like, how well requests and anticipation is satisfied by a leader. If a follower decides to disregard or refuse to accept what he is asked to do, it reflects an indirect sign of resentment and discontent towards the leader.
Intermittently, the effectiveness of leadership can be based on whether the leader actually contributes to the quality of development made by the followers, either by motivation, settling disputes among members, self confidence building, increment in skills and so on.
Above all, leadership effectiveness is looked at based on the accomplishment of goals, and success in duties carried out. For example, if an organisation attains higher net profits or increase in sales, it shows that the leader together with the followers worked hard toward achieving this.
Management in an Organisation
In a formal organisation, both managememnt and leadership are elements of organisational existence.
According to Mullins (2005) management takes place in an organisation, for the purpose of goal achievement, which is not done on its own, but through the hard work of people by means of actions.
Management in an organisation is done through a manager.
“According to Bennis and Nanus (1985) cited by Yulk,G (2006,pg.4) managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.”
One of the objectives of managers is to make sure that there is utmost productivity and in an organisation. Management in an organisation is entails decision making on how a set goal is going to be accomplished, it is also needed as a basis for effectiveness.
Management Functions
There are different theories of management functions by different theorists. However, some researchers have looked at management based on waht they think it is.
“According to Fayols’ Theory(1949), he said management functions are divided into five. They are Planning, Organising ,Commanding, Coordinating, Controlling” Dransfield,R .et al.(2004,pg 140-143)
Planning and organising in an organisation works together because an organisation need to evaluate their objective and their available resources. it is needed by management in the putting together of short term plans and projects.
Commanding in an organisation as to do with telling the subordinate what to do after the plans are well organised.
Coordinating: it is the role of the manager to coordinate or direct the doings of the subordinates from all areas of the organisation. It is basically putting things together . For there to be an effective coordination, managers have to make sure that he/she knows the plan the aim and so on.
Control is also vital in for management purpose. It is about looking into the performance and improvement and then coming together to put the wrong things right.
However Minzberg(1989) as cited by Senior and Flemming(2006) after his assessment of chief executive officers of small and large organisations. He split managerial role into three categories , which are then subdivided. They are:
Interpersonal Roles:
Figurehead: this role identifies managers as a figure for representative of the organisation. He is required to carry out duties as the head, such as attending meetings, entertain official visitors.
leader : manager is focused how to motivate his staff. He needs to be able to relate with his staff by being passionate about what he does. if he is going to be leading, it should be by laying good example for effectiveness.
Liaison: this role focuses on managers been able to make contacts, not just in the organisation unit, but outside as well. .
Informational roles: (monitor, disseminator, spokeman)
Decisional roles (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocation): managers tend to assign their resources very well . for example, if there is abugget, managers have to make sure that there are enough resources assigned to specific areas , in order execute their bugget.
Also manager tend to make sure he handles unexpected situations like fire strike in the best way as quick as possible as it is his main concern at that time.
The conclusion of both researchers is that management is more focused on what goes on in an organisation within its arrangement and aims. On the other hand leadership is looking at interpersonal conduct. Minzberg views management as a perception achieved and developed from experience and circumstances it finds itself rather than form its own standard.
Leadership and Management Styles
There are different types of leadership adopted by an organisation. The type of leadership adopted will affect the organisation positively or negatively. However, researchers have assessed the behaviour, of effective leadership based on some key models.
“The Ashridge model defines the styles of leadership as Tell, Sell, Consults and Joins. This leadership styles are also the popular ones which is known as Autocratic, Persuasive Democratic and Consultative Democratic and then finally the Laissez – faire.”Dransfield,R .et al.(2004, pg 167)
Autocratic:
this type of leadership style takes place in an organisation where the leader makes all the decisions based on what he thinks is right and then communicate his decision to the staffs, without consulting the members or staff about what their views or opinion.
This style tends to be more controlling . it tends to be demotivating and result to dissatisfaction.
Persuasive Democratic:
“this means that leaders make the decisions anyway and persuades the followers to that it is the right decision.
This means that in one way or the other the leader is still trying to carry them along with what he the decisions made. He can still welcome their own ideas if they wish to contribute.
Consultative:
this style is an opposite of the autocratic style. Leaders ask for the opinion of the follower, that is carries them along by letting them have a say, but them his own decision is final.
Laissez-faire
: “this is formed from a French word, meaning ‘let well alone”. It is a kind of loose leadership style, there is no procedure for decision making process. In this situation the follower are left to do what they think is right, the leader does not take part in leading the followers . There is a freedom of expression
Differences between Management and Leadership
There is a vast difference between Leadership and Management. Researchers have differentiated both leadership and management based on their own views.
According to Kotter (1990) he established the difference between management and leadership in requisites to their key procedure and planned result.
Management focus on certainty by organisation of people through recruitment, allocating responsibilities and laying down of effective objective .
Leadership on the other hand, looks into the far prospect of the organisation, creating changes in relation to the organization.
However other researchers like Minzberg(1973) analyse leadership and management in an organisation as a different modus operandi. “He portrays leadership” as one of 10 M.anagerial Roles. Leadership is examined as an introduction to managerial role. that is leadership role makes it possible for managerial role.
On the other hand, management all the other nine roles neede in an organisation.
Conclusion
The type of leadership style adopted in an organisation, depends on the type of organisation. For effectiveness in an organisation, a leader should weigh which ever style he thinks would suit the organisation in terms of the achievement of set goals and as well as his subordinates
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