Leadershid and management

Leadership and Management

The differences between Management and Leaders are often difficult to discern. People often possess both leadership and management traits, as many people in everyday circumstances use management skills, leadership skills, and a combination of both. However, there are subtle differences through which we can differentiate between management and leadership. At the same time, however, not all good managers are necessarily good leaders and not all good leaders are good managers. The qualities, skill sets and personalities that make a good leaders are often little different for a manager. For example, leader should be able to lead people, while managers must be detail oriented so that they can make good business decisions. Similarly, leaders focus on big picture and look for people, while management looks for detail and the profitability of the company (Desatnick, 1988).

In American company, one of the reasons that the organizations hire people with management skills rather than the leadership skills is that management role in the organization can easily be viewed through an analysis of the income statement, and profit/loss sheets (Berry, Zeithaml, and Parasuraman, 1985). The reward of advancement in American business makes it difficult for great leaders to rise to a position of leadership. A leader will rarely be good enough at the managerial skills required for advancement within the system. However, history has proven that in times of crisis, it is the leadership skill that takes the command of the situation. Management comes much later.

Some of the traits that leaders possess can be summed as follows: leaders are bold, imaginative, spirited, confident, passionate, unconventional, aggressive, inspiring. Our history can show the examples of great leaders and their tremendous feats. On the other hand, management is detail oriented that often looks for stability, quick results and conventions in the organization. Or, while leadership lead the people in the organization, the management manages financial ratios, inventory, process flow, cash, and information systems in the organization (Davidow and Uttal, 1989).

If one believes that leadership can be taught, then it can also be managed. The most progressive and successful companies are managing leaders by making them sensitive to the context- and company-sensitive. However, to develop a full leadership style, there are so many traits that people are required to develop by themselves since those traits are unique and cannot be taught. On the other hand, any business can prepare people for taking the management position in the organization.

Leadership Role and Responsibilities in Organizational Culture

Leaders often gain insight into the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of the current culture. Therefore, one of the foremost roles of the leaders becomes that they carefully consider the ways to make an organizational culture that is conducive to growth and learning. For example, leaders try to manage by vision and values rather than by rules. They bind their people through a common set of values. Second, leaders try to understand the need of collaborative culture. They develop strategies for increasing the informal and lateral relations among organizational members. Leaders exhibit passion for their work and show exuberance and boundless energy that is often the key for creating an effective organizational culture. Leaders foster a culture that features simplicity, senses of urgency, and action. They put speed, flexibility, and responsiveness into every aspect of their business. In addition, leaders invest in learning, knowledge, and people development, because they know that key to productivity remains in the head of the people rather than in the machines. Finally, leaders use a coaching management style that shows the people how to be effective and responsive in the organization (Davidow and Uttal, 1989).

In short, leaders acknowledge that in orders to make an organizational culture healthy, individual and organizational mindsets must shift. They, therefore, focus on the development of mindsets and practices that are appropriate for the nature and complexity of the problem. They understand how their own prejudices influence the way they lead and make certain that their biases do not get in the way of running their organization or work units. They pay special attention to people outside the mainstream culture. They promote a culture in which people are hired, promoted, and fired independently of their color, gender, or lifestyle

In all, the main role of the leaders becomes to create change in the organization so that it can deal with the environmental complexity and dynamics. The changes include in not only workforces with a greater degree of demographic diversity, technological change, and increased international competition, but also the products, services, and customer demands. Therefore, the main role of the leadership becomes to the change management process, enabling the creation of new system and then institutionalization. The leaders are always ready creating changes when old ways of doing the things do not work. For example, when there is a realization that old ways of operating are no longer going to work, a good leader will be able to develop a new and appealing vision of the future, and this vision will be able to provide a strategic and motivational focus. Providing a clear statement about the purpose of the organization can inspire workers and lead to greater commitment. Leaders may provide a vision of the future that is attractive and engaging rather than simply disagreeing with what has been done in the past.

Recommendations for Making Healthy Organizational Culture

Transformational leadership motivates followers to identify with the leader's vision and sacrifice their self-interest for that of the group or the organization. A transformational leader recognizing the need for change, creates a new vision, and then institutionalizes the change. A good vision provides both a strategic and a motivational focus. It provides a clear statement of the purpose of the organization and is, at the same time, a source of inspiration and commitment. Some researchers often suggest that the leader must be a change champion who can introduce positive reinforcement.

Seeing such an important role of the leaders, the following recommendations for making a healthy organizational culture can be made: Leaders should be able to create a new, shared vision and common direction by deciding what the organization should look like and how it should optimally function. The leaders should develop a plan to create the motivation to change the existing culture among dominant coalitions and communicate the plan on an ongoing basis. Finally, leaders should determine the sources of resistance and obstacles to culture change and develop strategy of getting around these obstacles. In all, leaders should establish a cultural norm for continuous learning and continuous cultural transformation (Kohn, 1993).