Leadership and management are closely related, yet differ. Compare and contrast leadership and management. Include an example.
As is explained in our textbook, leading is an important part of a manager’s job, though their key roles are to plan, organize and control. (DuBrin, 2012). “Managers [are] often viewed as task-oriented, and not necessarily focused on their employees. Leaders on the other hand are viewed as people-oriented; they impact and influence as well as work through and motivate their employees…” (Bawany, 2014). A leader’s job is to inspire, motivate and influence people. Leaders must have social and emotional intelligence to be successful whereas a manager does not require this to do their job successfully. (Bawany, 2014). A leader needs to influence people to work towards a common goal. A manager has to control a process, project or activity. Leaders can delegate tasks to managers, whereas they cannot delegate leadership activities to others. For example, a company may be struggling with not hitting production goals. A manager must manage the issues with the production line, schedule shipments, etc. A leader must motivate and inspire the staff to work together to try to get back to hitting production goals.
Bawany, S. (2014, June 1). From Manager to Leader. Leadership Excellence, 34-35.
DuBrin, A. (2012). Leadership: Research findings, Practice, and Skills (7th ed). Mason: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
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Why are leaders essential, and what role does situation play in leadership? Compare and contrast contingency theory and situational leadership theory in your answer. Be sure to support your ideas with the scholarly research.
Leaders are essential because people need someone to follow, to be inspired by, motivated by, and to seek counsel from. Situation plays a huge role in leadership because many times the situation will dictate what approach of leadership is going to be employed.
The path-goal theory of leadership is a situational leadership theory and was developed by Robert House. It describes the leader’s role in an employee’s goals and rewards. The theory says that a manager or leader sets the employee on the path toward his or her goal so that they will reach the goal (DuBrin, 2012). This is a good motivator for employees, and keeps leaders engaged in each employee’s path. Not only do the employees feel satisfaction by achieving their goals, but they also feel the involvement and coaching by their leaders. This leadership style can be effective over time. As employees reach one goal, a new path can be set for the next goal. A long-term cycle of working and reward is a great way to keep employees happy and working at the same company. However, if trying to mold the employee into a leader, this may not be the best style to employ because the leader is taking all of the initiative, leaving little self-leading to the employee
Vroom’s contingency theory takes all things into account when making a decision. It maintains that there is no one best way to lead. It says that the optimal leadership style is contingent on a variable number of factors. Each of these factors must be weighed to find the current optimal leadership style based upon the current situation. (Fiedler, Hersey, Blanchard, Vroom, & Yetton, n.d.). Each time the situation changes, all factors will need to be reevaluated to find the new best leadership style. This is a good style to employ when situations do not change often, which would require a lot of time to continuously reevaluate.
DuBrin, A. (2012). Leadership: Research findings, Practice, and Skills (7th ed). Mason: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
Fiedler, Hersey, Blanchard, Vroom, & Yetton (n.d.). Summary of Contingency Theory . Retrieved from http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_contingency_theory.html
Do you believe that leaders are born with certain traits or can they develop traits over time? What are the limitations of seeing leadership as traits?
DuBrin says that the personality traits of leaders can be categorized as being either general personality traits or task-related traits. General personality traits include self-confidence, humility, assertiveness, sense of humor, enthusiasm, extraversion, and authenticity. These are personality traits that leaders have and apply in all scenarios in their lives. Task-related personality traits include passion, courage, internal locus of control, flexibility and adaptability, and emotional intelligence traits which include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. These personality traits apply during specific scenarios or when doing work tasks (DuBrin, 2012). Other traits that leaders have are being inspirational, motivational, articulate, enthusiastic and optimistic (Bawany, 2014). I do not believe that one is born with these traits. I believe that people develop these traits in response to their environments and experiences, and that they are, and can be developed over time. The limitations of seeing leadership as traits is that this creates a sort of checklist in determining the ability to lead. By viewing leadership as specific traits, people either have them or do not. This limits the many different ways people can be leaders to one specific list.
Bawany, S. (2014, June 1). From Manager to Leader. Leadership Excellence, 34-35.
DuBrin, A. (2012). Leadership: Research findings, Practice, and Skills (7th ed). Mason: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
In what ways is a charismatic leader different than a transformational leader or a servant leader?
A charismatic leader is a leader who uses their personality to influence others and create positive relationships. They realize that the impression that other people have of them will determine whether or not they will be a charismatic leader (DuBrin, 2012). Charismatic leaders use these relationships that they build to establish and continue positive relationships to make leadership easier. A transformational leader is someone who brings major, positive changes to a company. They do this by working with people to transform their interests from self-serving to a larger, company-serving perspective (DuBrin, 2012). Typically, someone is not both charismatic and transformational. These leaders encourage people to perform better than the previously had expected of themselves (McLaurin, & Amri, 2008). These leaders are out to complete a big goal and use their leadership to achieve it.
DuBrin, A. (2012). Leadership: Research findings, Practice, and Skills (7th ed). Mason: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
McLaurin, J., & Al Amri, M. (2008). DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP. Allied Academies International Conference: Proceedings Of The Academy Of Organizational Culture, Communications & Conflict (AOCCC), 13(2), 15-19.
What personal characteristics or traits of a leader should be emphasized in order to bring about improvements in the organization?
Transformational leaders have certain traits that make them better suited to be a transformational leader. These traits include being empowering, being able to instill vision in others, acting as role models, motivating other, considering each person individually, and being motivational (McLaurin, & Amri, 2008). Other traits that should be emphasized are innovation, having emotional intelligence and being people-oriented (DuBrin, 2012). These traits are all important to transformational leaders because without them, they would be unsuccessful in attempting to bring about major changes in a company.
DuBrin, A. (2012). Leadership: Research findings, Practice, and Skills (7th ed). Mason: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
McLaurin, J., & Al Amri, M. (2008). DEVELOPING AN U
NDERSTANDING OF CHARISMATIC AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP. Allied Academies International Conference: Proceedings Of The Academy Of Organizational Culture, Communications & Conflict (AOCCC), 13(2), 15-19.