Characteristics Of A Manager

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A manager is defined as a person who is responsible for organizing and directing a group of people working under him (Buchanan and Huczynski 2013). This places him in charge of managing work and directing how the work is done to deliver the required results. Katz (1955) identified three skills that a successful manager should have and these are “conceptual skills, interpersonal skills and technical skills”. These skills are key for any manager and leader in an organization irrespective of the level at which they are leading from, be it at the top, middle or supervisory. A manager is also responsible for managing the subordinates working under him and controlling how they perform their roles. These subordinates might include supervisors and other workers who report directly to him. His role also puts him in the responsibility of hiring staff, firing staff and rewarding staff as well as selecting the team members to work in specific assignments.
A leader is a person who guides others to attain their intended goal. A leader is expected to have a vision, resolve and a commitment to realize that vision and the expertise to make it come to pass. With regards to a leader's vision, a leader visualizes a problem and guides the team as they resolve it while aiming at the ultimate goal that needs to be achieved. Looking at the definition of a manager and leader from this perspective, brings out the interrelationship between a manager and a leader but it is still clear that there is a difference between a manager and a leader. I will expound on these difference of the characteristics of a leader and a manager in detail.
When we compare the manager and the leader, we see that the manager focuses on a different subset of responsibilities such...

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...e capacity to labor meritoriously as a group participant and construct supportive energy within the group, it consequently calls for managers to exercise excellent interpersonal talents. I hypothesize that that these changes in the organizational structures and management styles will continue to be adopted by more organizations in more in the future.
Follett, (2011) underlined the significance of the presence of a connection between the manager and the subordinate besides the necessity to look at both managing and leading in an all-inclusive manner than it has been done previously. Dr. Likert (1967) concurs that the relationship between the manager and the workers is crucial and he identified four methods of management that lead credence to this premise that “leaders must to be able to adjust their conduct in order to ensure that they fit with those that they lead”.

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