Leadership vs Management

Introduction

Numerous Job vacancies begin by seeking the services of a Manager and then follow it up with the statement that the manager must have leadership skills. By implication, one can assume that leadership is second in command to management; and yet in the present turbulent environment, leadership is much more needed as it is the only thing that can make firms achieve competitive advantage. The most logical thing for organizations is to develop a job placement with a title-leader- thereby clearly stating that a firm is seeking a leader than that of a manager. This paper presents a review and critical evaluation of a key leadership and management issue facing organisations today. First of all, the paper will focus on a review of a key management issue, secondly, it will review a key leadership issue; and, finally, it will present a critical evaluation of both management and leadership.

Emphasis on Structure, Order and Consistency-A key issue of Management

The history of management is about the creation of structure; order and consistency as per the classical management approach. It should be noted that the classical view approach to managing an organisation ended up developing managers than leaders. Burnes (2000 pp.33) support this claim through his statement that classical approach is characterised by the proposition that organisations are rational entities, they are designed based on scientific principles, and that people are economic being and are only motivated by money. As a result, jobs are designed to maximise management control and minimise individual’s skill and discretion. Large Corporation, for example, a financial institution is a good case in point. Operations of a commercial bank is often hierarchica...

... middle of paper ...

...a firm need to be strategically focused- the leadership aspect. This will translate into the development of a long term plan, implementation of the necessary changes, adaptability. It will also lead to the inspiration of employees. On the other hand, the future will be reached through initiating the first step; and this implies that, management will operationalize the future. This will create a strategically focused firm; and a high performance firm as outlined in this definition: “Strategic Management is a process, directed by top management, to determine the fundamental aims or goals of organization, and ensure a range of decisions which will allow for the achievement of those aims or goals in the long-term, whilst providing for adaptive responses in the shorter term”.(Johnston etal 2011). Therefore, there is a relationship between management and leadership.