Are leaders and managers different? Can a leader be a manager? Can a manager be a
leader? Is there a difference between leadership and management? According to Abraham
Zaleznik, the difference between managers and leaders lies in the conceptions they hold, deep in
their psyches, of chaos and order. Zaleznik goes on to say that managers embrace process, seek
stability and control, and instinctively try to resolve problems quickly, sometimes before they
fully understand a problem’s significance. Leaders tolerate chaos and lack of structure and are
willing to delay closure in order to understand the issues more fully. Business leaders have
much more in common with artists, scientists, and other creative thinkers than they do with
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A manager wants to solve problems, and find the
best ways to achieve results so people will continue to contribute to the organization. A manager
has persistence, is tough minded, hardworking, intelligent, analytical, and tolerant. Zaleznik
states leaders advocate change and are concerned with understanding people’s beliefs while
managers advocate stability and carry out responsibilities and exercise authority (Lunenburg).
Attitudes and goals differ between leaders and managers. Managers tend to adopt
interpersonal attitudes toward goals. Managerial goals arise out of necessities rather than desires
(Zaleznik). Leaders adopt a personal and active attitude toward goals. Leaders are active instead
Managers and Leaders 3
of reactive, shaping ideas instead of responding to them (Zaleznik). Leaders seek to instill
positivity in the workplace.
Leaders and managers have a different outlook on the concepts of work. Managers tend to
view work as an enabling process involving people and ideas to establish strategies and make
decisions (Zaleznik). Manager’s tactics appear flexible where they negotiate and barter and
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Managers prefer to work with
people. They become anxious without others to work with. Managers relate to people according
to the role they play in an organization. Managers are all about how to get things done in an
organization. Managers are always out for the win-win situation and how they can turn the win-
lose situation into a win-win situation to maintain balance. Leaders are quite the opposite.
Leaders have feelings.They wear their heart, and their feelings, on their sleeves.Leaders often
appear turbulent, intense, and sometimes disorganized.
Statement of the Problem
How do we develop leadership? Are leaders born or are they made? Everyone has their
own views regarding that question. In 1977 when Zaleznik wrote the article, Managers and
Leaders: Are They Different?, the view of management centered on organizational structure and
processes. Managerial development focused exclusively on building competence, control, and
Managers and Leaders 4
the appropriate balance of power. According to Zaleznik, that view omitted the essential
leadership elements of inspiration, vision, and human passion.
Cause of the
Leaders are actively on targeting goals and objectives for the people who work for them. In management, many goals are established by staffs and carried out by the managers themselves. Leaders will act to develop in more creative ways solve the problems; keep on going and with new missions. Managers will continue to do whatever is necessary work to accomplish the tasks and usually to get the job done without taking on too much risk or moving forward. The leader's instinct is to take risks instead and to challenge that task holding back by people and think of new ideas within an organization. Leaders more concerned on relationship between staffs, they promote the good staff, help them to develop, and move forward. Managers assign people, focus on personnel issues; and focus on how the job task get done, how they solve it, and how are they finished. (Rashid A., A., 2007).
The phrase “leader” versus “manager.” is used to show and compere how Leading is related to managing, Bennis and Nanus (1985:21) help us understand the broader role of supervision in their discussion of management and leadership: “To be a manager is to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of, responsibility for, to conduct. Leading, on the other hand, is influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion.” They go on to say that managers are people who “do things right,” and leaders are people who “do the right things.” Managers are more efficiency driven and focus on mastering routine activities, while leaders are driven by vision and judgment. Managers tend to be bean counters, while leaders focus on achieving desired results.
I believe that leadership is not something that you are born with, but that has to be learned over time. You learn to become a leader from watching other leaders, and also from personal experience. People should become leaders; so that they can help others do their best. They should not become leaders for the title and power that may come with leadership. Being a leader does not mean you get to boss people around by telling them what to do. The purpose of a leader is to guide others by encouraging, showing them the way, and by challenging them to do the best that they can do. I learned leadership through personal experience. In high school I played sports and had many class projects to do. My senior year was the first time my school had a soccer program, and I along with two other girls was captains. As we all know, when a group of girls come together, the drama comes too. All three of the captains had to work together and show the girls that if we wanted this program to be a success and grow, they had to work together as well. It was hard at first, but when we encouraged everyone, it worked out better than expected in the end. Also, in my business class, we had a lot of projects that were mostly group projects. During the end of the year, we had a project where we had to make up a new product. My partner and I were both seniors and it was a stressful time with finals, SAT scores, graduation, and trying to become honor graduates. We were tired and just did not want to do another project, but our teacher, Mr. Brace, did not give up on us. He showed us what to do, and encouraged us constantly every day. He would tell us many positive things and would check up on us. He was a great teacher and a great leader. Leadership may be one wo...
Presently many of us have learned that managers are primarily administrators who have learned to write business plans, utilize their resources and keep track of progress. We must learn that we are not limited by job title, and that means we can utilize our management skills in any position that we are in. We must also know that we can use our leadership skills in the same situations. On the other hand we have also learned that leaders are people who have an impact on those that surround them. The main difference that separates these two roles is that management is a function that must be utilized in any type of business, and leadership is the relationship that the leader has with his followers, which in turn can motivate and energize the organization.
I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corp in 2002, and was promoted through the ranks quickly assuming the role of a leader. At the age of 19, I had pinned on Corporal (E-4), and embarked on my on-the-job training in leadership. Spending time with the Marines prior to being promoted, I knew their personalities, strengths and weaknesses, and what motivated them. Reassuring that "if I 'm going to have followers then I better interact with them well and know what 's going on with them" (BMAL 500 Audio Lecture Series). Therefore, I had an early advantage in "the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals" (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p. 385). The basis of my leadership was the rank on my collar and that my higher command believed I was a good Marine and competent to
An organisation is a deliberate arrangement of team consisting different personal identities to accomplish some specific goals and managers are the ones who hold the responsibility of mastering and placing them together to strive for that purpose (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, and Coulter, 2008). Robbins et al. (2008) have stated that managers are people who coordinate and oversee the work activities of others so that the goal is accomplished effectively and efficiently. Managers usually possess qualities such as having strong communication skills, flexibility, imagination, enthusiasm, problem solving skills, and of course the desire to be a great leader (Phdinmanagement.org, 2014). The structure of management conducted by a manager is often influenced by the four functions introduced by Henri Fayol (planning, organising, leading, controlling); how Henry Mintzberg’s management roles play in the organisation and also the three essentials management skills proposed by Robert L. Katz (Robbins et al., 2008).
Managers have many complex, interrelated responsibilities. They have to organize how an organization’s work gets done and by whom, they train, teach and motivate employees, hold them accountable. They often budget for and allocate resources, organize work processes and make plans how their group will reach goals. To be an effective manager it is important to be able to perform successfuly these activities. But sometimes it is not enough to be just a good manager, sometimes it is important to be a leader. To be able to know what is a leader and what is a leadership let 's look at the definition. “Essentials of Contemporary Management” by Jones and George
The method of leadership is almost as similar as management, and a leader can be a manager. “Both management and leadership are seen as positions of responsibility or accountability in an organization” (Edwards, Schedlitzki, Turnbull, & Gill, 2015). Leadership and management can relate and overlap within the roles and functions and are similar within one another in meaning. Together leadership and management direct the actions of a group or individually.
What is the difference between a manager and a leader? Are the terms interchangeable? These questions may be answered by examining two simple definitions in the literature for the terms...
Leadership and management are two words that are commonly mistaken; the relation and the differences between them are often unclear. Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or a set of goals." Managers are there to plan, organize, lead and monitor employees' activities. Leaders also have to be able to guide an organization through change. As we will see later, vision is a crucial component in the success of this task.
Managers nowadays do not actually do what a manager really should do back in the eighties. Changes that occurred in the new economy, the increasing use of technology in business, and the effects of globalisation towards business world have led management into a whole new dimension. New managers are expected to be able to manage on an international scale, act strategically, utilize technology, establish values, and of course, act responsibly as well. (Crainer, 1998) Henry Mintzberg once asked, "What do managers do?" After conducting his research based on a study of five CEOs, he concluded that managerial work involves interpersonal role, decisional role and informational role. And the fact is that, managers get things done through other people. Therefore, managers are required to possess certain skills and competencies which allow them to play these roles effectively and efficiently throughout the four functions of management. (Mintzberg, 1998)
After conducting some research on leadership, many questions have been brought to my attention. Some questions include the following: What is a leader? Are leaders made or born? What is the difference between leadership and management? What are the theories concerning leadership? Answers to these questions, and many others, should become clear enough at the end of this research.
“The important word there is inspire. The key difference between managers and leaders is that managers tell people what to do, while leaders inspire them to do it. Inspiration comes from three things: clarity of one’s vision, courage of their conviction and the ability to effectively communicate both of those things”
First and foremost, leaders help to motivate and develop employees in a workplace. There is a popular quote that states, “a manager
Nevertheless, It is complex to defined the word ‘leadership’; Leadership study is a discipline which have continued to evolve; and the concept of leadership will also developing. Boddy (2014) identified that leadership is the process of individuals who influenced the activities of other individuals in order to achieve high levels of goal setting. In essence, managers and leaders are the same type of people. For example,