LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

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In order to know the differences between management and leadership, I’m going to clarify some concepts:

“Management is responsible for maintaining order; leadership is responsible for producing change or movement.”(Kotter, 1990).

Management process reduces uncertainty and provides stability; on the other hand, leadership process creates uncertainty and creates change.

The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgment –effectiveness versus activities of mastering routines –efficiency. (Bennis & Nanus, 1997).

Although these differences, both processes complement each other and the result of that complementation is a healthy organization.

Leadership is an important aspect that has to be analyzed more in detail:

·         Fundamental Act of Leadership: The leader’s fundamental act is to induce people to be aware or conscious of what they feel –to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action (James MacGregorBurns, Leadership, p. 44).

Now I will present some theories of leadership:

·         Behavioral Theories: Composed by:

1.    Authoritarian:  The classical approach, manager retains as much power and decision making authority as possible.

2.    Consultative: The consultative leader will talk to everyone involved in or affected by a task to get their views and ideas.

3.    Democratic: Keeps employees informed about things that affect their work and shares decision making and problem solving responsibilities.

4.    Laissez-Faire: manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible.

5.    Ohio State Studies: It is composed by Initiating Structure (getting things done) and Consideration (relationships).

6.    Michigan Studies: It is composed by Production-Oriented Leader (getting work done) and Employee-Oriented Leader (relationship).

·         Contingency Theories: Involve the belief that leadership style must be appropriate for the particular situation.

1.    Path-goal theory (Robert House).

2.    Normative decision model , Vroom-Yetton-Jago.

3.    Situational leadership theory, The Hersey-Blanchard Model.

Nowadays there are new researches about leadership, which are:

·         Transformational Leaders: Inspire followers to transcend their self-interests and achieve exceptional performance.

·         Charismatic Leaders: Use of personal abilities and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary effects on followers.

·         Authentic Leaders: A leader who is guided by explicit values that emphasize collective interest, enabling them to operate at high levels of moral integrity.

There are also Emerging Issues in Leadership such as:

·         Emotional intelligence

·         EI and Buddhism

·         Gender and Leadership

·         Servant leadership

Discuss transformational, charismatic, and authentic leadership. Would you expect these styles of leadership to exist in all cultures? Differ across cultures? Explain.

Transformational leaders are those who inspire their followers to achieve exceptional performance, they motive people by creating an intellectual stimulus. On the other hand, charismatic leaders use their personal abilities to have effects on followers. Finally, authentic leaders operate high levels of moral integrity by emphasizing in collectivity. These styles of leadership are not expected to exist in all cultures, because the differences in the life styles of people, in the customs of every culture, in the necessities and wants of societies. Each type of these leadership styles vary across cultures depending on the government regime, the social and the demographic environment. Also it is important to have in mind that in a culture there can be different types of leadership that represents certain segments of the population.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

·         Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

·         Brilhart, J. K., and Galanes, G. J. (1989). Effective Group Decisions.

·         Dubuque, IA: William C Brown Publishers. p. 201-203.

·         Kotter, J. P. (1990). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, May-June, p. 103-11.

·         Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal Worldand You. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.

·         Northouse, P. G. (2001). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.