Leadership styles + Management styles: Convergence and differentiation

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There are some differences between being a leadership and being a manager, both disciplines involve a set of characteristics that could complement each other.

Management is associated with the art of leading or conducting task inside a company or an organization as well as tasks in the normal life and this implies to follow some paths or programs in order for the manager to be effective and successful. Leadership is a process in which a person (leader) influences other to achieve goals and objectives in both an organization and in life.

So, in summary we can say that to manage is to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct and to lead is influencing, guiding in direction, course, action and opinion.

Kotter said in 1990 the differences of management and leadership in a short phrase listed below: ““Management is responsible for maintaining order; leadership is responsible for producing change or movement.”  According to the definitions I gave earlier, we can say that management is required when there are present a leadership attitude where Effective leadership produces useful

Changes and Effective management controls complexity giving as results healthy organizations.

In the leadership process there are 4 kinds of leaderships and are:

1.    Leadership (the process of guiding & directing the behavior of people in the work environment)

2.    Formal leadership (officially sanctioned leadership based on the authority of a formal position)

3.    Informal leadership (unofficial leadership accorded to a person by other members of the organization)

4.    Follower leadership (process of being guided & directed by a leader in the work environment).

In the modern organizations there are a layout of the organization such a vision, mission, values but there is a missing factor nowadays that is the purpose that is aimed to solve “why we do what we do?”

In the leadership process are an early Trait Theories of Leadership that Attempted to identify what physical attributes, personality characteristics, and abilities distinguish leaders from other members of a group as well as some evidence that leaders are more intelligent, verbal, cooperative, and have higher level of Scholarship all this by 6 theories explained below:

·         Authoritarian (Manager retains as much power & decision making authority as possible)

·         Consultative (talk to everyone involved in or affected by a task to get their views and ideas)

·         Democratic (Keeps employees informed about things that affect their work and shares decision making and problem solving responsibilities

·         Laissez-faire (It is one in which the manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible)

·         Ohio State Studies

·         Michigan Studies

new leadership researches has shown that there are 3 personalities that takes place in nowadays acts, this are:

1.    Transformational Leaders (Leaders who inspire followers to transcend their self interests and achieve exceptional performance)

2.    Charismatic Leaders (A leader’s use of personal abilities and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary effects on followers)

3.    Authentic Leader (A leader who is guided by explicit values that emphasize collective interest)

Do you (or would you want to) work in an autocratic, democratic, or consultative work environment? What might be the advantages

And disadvantages of each?

Due to the company I work for, I can say I work in a consultative environment because we discuss every change or take of course we are willing to follow in order to improve the current situation of the company. There are more advantages than disadvantages because by talking with the person in charge or involved in the task, managers can get different point of views and solve the problem or implement the necessary changes.

Democratic		consultative		authoritarian
Advantages	Disavantages	Advantages	Disavantages	Advantages	Disavantages
Participative style	Some person could not participate in the process	everyone involved in the consultive process	They are not included in the decision-making process.	Manager retains as much power & decision making authority as possible	Do not consult staff, nor allowed to give any input
Keeps employees informed	Exists the possibility of corruption	Everyone is in constant communication with the consultative leader			Staff expected to obey orders without receiving any explanations
shared decision making and problem solving responsibilities

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) Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World and You. South-Western College Publication, 7th. Ed.

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

·     http://www.leadership501.com/definition-of-management/21/