How Leadership Differs From Management - Paper Example

John Kotter, a renowned leadership theorist, came up with a structure for ascertaining the main difference between leadership and management behaviors and responsibility. Kotter argues that leadership and management responsibility are almost differing in nature. He posits that management role focus on maintaining order and stability (Kotter, 1998). Kotters argument is based on the fact that order creates consistency, and thus consistency will lead to smooth and efficient operation of business activity as a management goal. Conversely, Kotter supports the idea that leadership attempts to enforce effective change and adaptability in an organization. He suggests that successful leaders should aim at seeking frequent adaptive change with the vision of continuously improving organization success (Kotter, 1998). Kotter firmly emphasis on the separation of leadership and management role in the organization, arguing that both are critical to the organization success (Kotter, 1999).

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Henry Mintzberg suggests that although leadership and management role are conceptually distinct, it is impractical to separate the two in a given organization setting (Mintzberg, 2009). Mintzberg agrees with Kotter that organization development and success depends on both leadership and management skills. Mintzberg further enlightens that management involves various processes, while leadership focuses on the performance of several key roles that also comprise of the scope of management. For instance, Mintzberg (1973), came up with ten managerial roles from his firsthand observation of executive. He included being a leader as one of the roles, to make the assumption that being a successful manager in the modern organization requires leadership capabilities. Mintzberg basis of augment is that the difference between leadership and management role should not be overdrawn. He maintains that it is impracticable to manage people without leading them effectively. Management role according to Mintzberg, involves providing information and new ideas. Mintzberg study characterizes management role as more of action oriented. He criticizes the separation of management and leadership role citing that effective leadership is a result of successful management (Mintzberg, 2009)

Aspect of leadership and management role

A sense that can be gained from Mintzbergs study is that management role is entirely action based. As a manager of a team of 10 people, I fulfill several different management roles in day to day business operation. Since Mintzberg consider the aspect of leading as a management role, leading a team of 10 people is one of the major management roles in my job. Kotter reminds that management role involves helping people successfully complete routine jobs. In my working environment, I managed to achieve this management role by ensuring benchmark and goals are in place for people to clearly see real progress and make adjustment where necessary. Other action oriented roles include allocating resources, resolving conflicts and representing my department at board meetings.

Both Kotter and Mintzberg agree that leadership role involves having a clear vision of the organization and effectively influencing people to accomplish it. One of my primary leadership roles is to create changes and adaptability to innovations that will help aligns the business with its vision, such as in new products, dealing with new customers, and new work process. My other leadership role includes engaging my team members in the organization vision and inspiring them to elevate their goals by creating an environment in which team members have a sense of responsibility for the organization. Conclusively, as both theorists suggest, management and leadership roles are both significant to the success of an organization.

References

Kotter, J. P. (1998). A force for change: How leadership differs from management. Beijing: Huaxia chu ban she.

Kotter, J. P. (1999). John P. Kotter on what leaders really do.

Mintzberg, H. (1973). The nature of managerial work. New York: Harper & Row.

Mintzberg, H. (2009). Managing. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.