02 Nov 2017
A famous quote by Warren Bennis "Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right" allows us to further think, evaluate and understand the characteristics of leadership and managerial skills as well as their personality traits. This paper will also elaborate on how some of the leaders have adapted the Contingency, Behavioural and the Transformational Leadership theories along with managers who have a managerial style.
There are lots of definitions and interpretations for the term ‘LEADERSHIP’. One is "A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people" (Mullins, L.J. 2002, p904). Another popular definition would be, "the process of influencing an organization or groups within an organization in its efforts towards achieving a goal" (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005, p.519)
Mullins (1999) suggested that "leaders are born, not made", that certain leaders possess some leadership characteristics since birth. Meta-analytical studies highlight the importance of intelligence, extroversion, dominance, masculinity, conservatism and good personal adjustment. (Lord de Vader and Alliger,1986). Some other traits that have been seen across leaders are self- confidence, assertiveness, independence and the desire to lead.
Mullins (2010) discusses about the broad framework of leadership styles within a simple three-fold heading:
The Autocratic Style – This style talks about the leader being the boss that provides detailed instructions on task and supervises the work closely.
The Democratic Style– This style talks about the leader as a helper and is more a part of the team. The group members have a greater say in decision making, determination of policy, implementation of systems and procedures.
A Laissez-faire (genuine) Style – This style talks about the leader devolving himself from responsibility and passes the work onto the staff. The leader of this style can be empowering or may represent a loss of control.
Furthermore, Mullins (2010) identifies Tannenbaum and Schmidt’s work of the continuum of possible leadership behaviour available to a manager and along which various styles of leadership it may be placed. He relates The Tannenbaum and Schmidt continuum to McGregor’s supposition of Theory X and Theory Y (where boss centred leadership is towards Theory X and subordinate-centred leadership is towards Theory Y). Since there is always some limitation on authority and freedom, neither extremes of the continuum is absolute; this approach can be seen as identifying four main styles of leadership: Tells, Sells, Consults and Joins.
More recent studies provide a general approach to the study of leadership – Contingency Theory. According to Mullins (2010) Contingency theories are based on the belief that there is no single style of the leadership appropriate to all situations. It identifies key features of the situation that influences the appropriateness of particular styles.
Three of the major contingency models of leadership include:
Favourability of leadership situation by Fiedler – Fiedler’s contingency model is more person or relationship-centred. It emphasises and focusses on feelings and tends to be permissive, passive and considerate.
The Path-goal theory by House, and House and Dessler – House’s Path and Goal theory shines light upon four leadership styles, namely – directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented. Some of the key situational variables for this theory are personal characteristics of subordinates and their belief that compliance will lead to desired rewards.
Readiness level of followers by Hersey and Blanchard - Their model sheds light upon how the maturity of employees influences appropriateness of leadership styles. It mentions widely about four styles:
Telling style (high task/ low relationship)
Selling style (high task/ high relationship)
Participating style (high relationship/ low task)
Delegating style (low relationship/ low task)
Mullins (2010) also talks about Transactional and Transformational Leadership. Below are highlighted some aspects of both.
It is based on position power
It appeals to the self-interest of employees rather than higher ideals
It sets goals, offers rewards based on expected performance
It provides a vision
It instils a sense of purpose and a desire to contribute
It communicates ideas cogently and appeals to hearts as wells as minds
Treats employees as individuals
Successful managers are those who have learned the appropriate body of knowledge and have developed an ability to apply acquired skills and techniques.
Successful managers are those who recognise that nobody really knows what is going on and who persuade the others of their own powers by calling up the appropriate gods and by engaging in the expected rituals.
Successful managers are those who can work out unwritten laws of life in the organisational jungle and are able to play the game so that they win.
Successful managers are those born with appropriate intuition intelligence and personality traits which they develop through the practice of leadership.Definition or the nature of work that Managers do can be best described in one form that Mullins (2010) illustrated using Watson’s discussion of management as the model shown below:
(Source: Mullins (2010) p.426)
Henri Fayol divided the activities of industrial undertaking into six different groups – technical, commercial, financial, security (safe-guarding the property and people), accounting and managerial. He further divided the managerial activities into five elements of management as Planning, Organising, Command, Co-ordination and Control.
Peter Drucker in the book Management – Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, talks about the tasks and the contribution of Manager that are not only important but also different and that need to be performed. Mullins (2010, p.432) identifies Drucker’s five basic operations involved in the work of a manager as below:
Set Objectives – determines objectives and the goals, what needs to be done to achieve these objectives.
Organises - analyses the activities, decisions and relations required, classifies and divides work, creates organisation structure and selects staff.
Motivates and Communicates – creates a team out of people responsible for various jobs.
Measures – establishes targets and measurements of performance which focus on both, the individual and the organisation as a whole.
Develops people – directs, encourages and trains. How well sub-ordinates develop themselves depends upon the way a manager manages.
Although management theories apply to all managers, there are important differences between management in a privately owned enterprise and in a public sector organisation. The key thing is the application of these management theories.
John Kotter (1999) in the Harvard Business Review has mentioned about how he studied 15 successful American general managers in detail and conclusively pointed out two very significant activities which can be observed as the behaviour pattern of general managers. One activity that all these managers had in common was ‘agenda-setting’ and second, ‘network-building’.
Kotter (2001) observes leadership and management to be two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Each has its own function and characteristic activities. He adds, both are necessary for success in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment. Having seen some of the traits and behaviour of both the leaders and the managers, the activities of leadership and managers are differentiated by Kotter as below:
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