Leadership and management

Leaders manage and managers lead but they are not one and the same (Bass 1990). In years past the concepts of leadership and management have often been meshed into one. Is the manager of a business able to lead? Is the leader able to manage his followers? Management is defined by certain functions which can possibly lead to leadership and leadership is characterised by certain activities which could play a role in management. However, a number of managers do not lead and some leaders do not manage (Zaleznik, 1977). Different styles of leadership exist, the basic being democratic, autocratic and laissez faire and several theorists. Both political and business leaders have their views on what leadership should be and the characteristics an effective leader should posses. Management on the other hand, also has several definitions but the views on management and who an effective manager is are often synonymous. This essay sets out to critically asses Dwight D. Eisenhower's definition of leadership in relation to business organisations and also how leadership differs from management while comparing it to other views on leadership. Grove (1986) stated that it is necessary for effective managers to have the same clarity of purpose and motivation attributed by effective leaders.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States of America and was also a five star general in the United States army (Bacharach 2013). Eisenhower defined leadership as "…the art of getting others to do something you want done because they want to do it." As a general in the army, Eisenhower saw the sort of difficult circumstances his men were fighting under and he realised that duty and discipline was not sufficient in maintaining their morale...

... middle of paper ...

...ent. London: Pitman.
• Gardner, J. W. 1987. The tasks of leadership. Washington, DC: Independent Sector.
• Grove, A. S. 1986. Tapping into the leader who lies within us. Wall Street Journal, Journal 22, col.3, April 7.
• Heifetz, R, & Laurie, D 1997. 'The Work of Leadership', Harvard Business Review, 75, 1, pp. 124-134, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 18 November 2013.
• Kotter, J. 1990. A force for change. New York: The Free Press.
• Larson, A., 1968. Eisenhower: the president nobody knew. 1st ed. New York: Popular Library.
• Needle, D., 2010. Business in Context. 5th ed. Hampshire: Cengage Learning.
• Taylor, F. 1947. Scientific management, comprising Shop management. New York: Harper.
• Zaleznik, A. 1977. 'Managers and leaders: Are they different?', Harvard Business Review, 55, 3, pp.67-78, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 18 November 2013.