Management and Leadership Styles
I Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to describe management and leadership styles. And find similarities and differences between manager and leader. It is my opinion that manager and leader are the two different roles but I think people often use the terms interchangeably.
Managers arrange working on a team; provide resources to their people; supervise they are productive and successful; perform trainings; make sure that they people are developing to the next level and can handle challenges.
Leader can be anyone on the team. He or she can generate bright ideas and creative thoughts; have specific experience in the particular area of a project or business. Leader’s leadership skills are based on personal identity, not on the title.
II Body
Some of the important leadership styles are autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, and bureaucratic. At the managementstudyguide.com (Management Study Guide, 2008) they are described as follows.
The first leadership style is the autocratic style. In this style, a leader has complete authority and directs the people. People cannot put express their views even if they are best for the team’s or business interests. People cannot criticize or question the leader’s way to perform the tasks. The leader gets things done by himself.
Next leadership style is the democratic style. The leaders invite their people to play an important role in the decision-making process, though the power to make decisions rests with the leader. The leader guides the people on what to perform and how to perform, while the people share their experience and suggestions with the leader.
One more leadership style is the laissez-faire style. Here, the leaders totally trust their people to perform the job themselves. He or she just concentrates on the main aspect of his or her work and does not pay a lot of attention to management itself. The people are welcomed to share their thoughts and provide suggestions which are best for team’s or organizational interests.
And the last leadership style is the bureaucratic style. Here, the leaders carefully follow the organizational rules and procedures. Also, they make sure that the people strictly adhere to the rules and policies. This leadership style gradually develops over time.
And now I’ll describe the management styles. They are autocratic, persuasive, consultative, participative, and laissez-faire. At the business.mrwood.com.au (MrWood, 2008) they are described as follows.
The first management style is autocratic. A person of this style exercises a high degree of control over the team. An autocratic manager tends to be a person who has the authority to make all of the decisions.
The second management style is persuasive. A persuasive manager shares behavior with an autocratic manager. Most importantly, persuasive managers maintain control over the entire decision making process. The major difference here is that a persuasive manager will spend more time working with subordinates in order to convince them of the advantages of the decisions that have been made.
The third management style is consultative. In this case, manager will endeavor to obtain the opinions of employees before making a decision. Whereas an autocratic and a persuasive manager places the needs of the company before the employees, a consultative manager is rather more likely to recognize that employees are able to make a valuable contribution to the performance of the company.
The next management style is participative. A participative manager allows employees to take part in the decision making process. The process of making a decision is centralized when a manager adopts one of the above mentioned style, but a participative manager adopts a decentralized decision making process. Although the manager still maintains the right to say the final word, the participative style is unique in that the input from employees is far more persuasive.
The last management style is laissez-faire. At first, it may seem odd, but it is also possible that managers will adopt a style that involves very little direction from the manager. This style of management is entirely employee centered; managers provide very little direction, and employees are able to determine their own goals, and the action that they will take to achieve these goals.
As we can see, leadership and management are often confused to be same. Except the titles, leadership and management styles have many similarities. For instance, at the transtutors.com (TransTutors, 2007) they are described as follows.
- Both, leader and manager aim at achieving goals.
- Both, leader and manager mobilize and utilize resource.
- Both, leader and manager act as a link between top management/board and employees/followers.
- Both, leader and manager depend on employees/followers and try to motivate them.
But they have the differences too. In his book “On Becoming a Leader,” Warren Bennis (1989) composed a list of the differences.
- The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.
- The manager administers; the leader innovates.
- The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
- The manager maintains; the leader develops.
- The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
- The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
- The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader’s eye is on the horizon.
- The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
- The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
- The manager imitates; the leader originates.
- The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
- The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.
III Conclusion
For sure, some managers can inspire and some leaders can consistently execute, but these are not their core strengths. While leaders and managers have similar aims the concept of management and leadership are not the same, they are complementary. The best situation is when managers have strong leadership skills.
References
Management Study Guide. (2008) Leadership Styles - Important Leadership Styles. [Online] Available from: http://managementstudyguide.com/leadership-styles.htm. [Accessed: 23 October 2013].
MrWood. (2008) Management Styles and Skills. [Online] Available from: http://business.mrwood.com.au/unit3/styskil/styskil5.asp. [Accessed: 23 October 2013].
TransTutors. (2007) Similarities Between Leadership and Management. [Online] Available from: http://www.transtutors.com/homework-help/industrial-management/leadership/similarities-between-leadership-and-management.aspx. [Accessed: 23 October 2013].
Bennis, V. (2009) On Becoming a Leader. Fourth Edition. New York: Basic Books.
