Management and Leadership

Today’s business landscape has become very changeable, which poses a range of difficulties for the management of different companies. It takes a great effort to lead even the most dedicated team to success, and finding the right person to lead an organization proves to be a challenging task. While the two terms are often considered identical, management and leadership are two fundamentally different concepts. Nowadays, organizations might face an issue when the manager does not perform well from the leading perspective. The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue and possible solutions to it.

This matter has been the focus of several studies in recent years. Kinicki et al. (2017) argue that while leadership is one of the functions in management, it “goes beyond just organizing, planning, and controlling.” (p. 469). The research outlines the difference between the concepts of leadership and management. The first notion refers to people who motivate and inspire their team, envisioning a company’s future strategies. Simultaneously, managers work in a different direction, executing the plans, and focusing on current challenges. Kinicki et al. (2017) state that management copes with complexity, whereas leadership deals with change. According to Willis et al. (2017), leaders pay more attention to their followers and their view of potential outcomes of the processes. In addition, Liphadzi et al. (2017) say that leadership implies social influence in that it shapes a team member’s vision of their purpose, while management works on completing organizational tasks. In other words, one concept is pointed at the future, and the other is related to the present.

On the other hand, one may assume that it is theoretically possible for one person to combine qualities required by both concepts. Indeed, Kinicki et al. (2017) mention the notion of managerial leadership, which implies “influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done,” as well as “facilitating individual and collective efforts” (p. 476). In this case, the influence deals with the motivational aspect and comes from the leadership side, whereas the second part of the definition refers to current problem solving, i.e., management. Topping (2018) suggests that successful managers need to implement a range of strategies focused on alleviating employees’ stress and motivating people to positive changes. The methods include dealing with such issues as fear of the unknown and failure, as well as workers’ inertia.

Today’s business presents an array of practical examples of actual managerial leadership implementation. Jeffrey Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, managed to build the most successful business empire of the 21^st century. Solanki (2019) states that the company owes a significant portion of its success to Bezos’s effective leadership, which values the organization’s human resources and combines an authoritative approach and a democratic style. Such a combination presents an excellent example of how management and leadership complement each other in one person, leading the company to resound success.

All in all, managerial leadership is an efficient tool for attaining the company’s goals while considering the views and well-being of its employees. Current objectives remain an issue of paramount importance for all organizations, but human resources have become a significant asset in recent years. If implemented correctly, managerial leadership would ensure a company’s sustainable development in the changeable business landscape of today.

References

Kinicki, A., Scott-Ladd, B., Perry, M., & Williams, B. (2017). Management: A practical introduction. McGraw-Hill Education Australia.

Liphadzi, M., Aigbavboa, C.O., & Thwala, W.D. (2017). A theoretical perspective on the difference between leadership and management. Procedia Engineering, 196, 478–482. Web.

Solanki, L. (2019). To what extent does Amazon.com, Inc’s success be accredited to its organizational culture and ND Jeff Bezos’s leadership style? Archives of Business Research, 7(11), 21–40. Web.

Topping, P. A. (2018). Managerial leadership. McGraw-Hill.

Willis, S., Clarke, S., & O’Connor, E. (2017). Contextualizing leadership: Transformational leadership and management‐by‐exception‐active in safety‐critical contexts. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 90(3), 281–305. Web.