Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management

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Paper information
Topic: Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management
Paper Type: Assignment
Word Count: (3000)
Pages: 12
Referencing Style: Harvard Style
Educational Level: Under Graduate
Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management
[Writer’s Name]
[Institute Name]
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Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management
Introduction
Leadership and management are the terms which are often used interchangeably, however; there are unique similarities and differences between the concepts of leadership and management. As phenomenon, leadership and management play fundamental roles in organizational environment. Leadership structure shapes the understanding and organization of firms and this process intricately permeates in the theory and practice of organizations. Researchers attribute absence of leadership with the absence of organization particularly due to the fact that people in organizations become disorganized and immobilized in the absence of an effective leadership. Conversely, management is widely used concept in organizational strata particularly in current day environment.
In general understanding, leadership and management both pursue the task of “attainment of objectives.” Differences lie within the practice of both the phenomenon. Moreover, while discussing leadership and management as processes, we cannot neglect the roles of managers and leaders which are drivers of these processes. In fact, papers lay their foundation upon the roles and behaviors of managers and leaders while discussing theories and practices of the processes of leadership and management.
Leadership and management are widely thrashed out concepts. Several studies and researches have been focused upon the exploration of various dimensions and aspects of the processes of leadership and management. In this paper we focus upon the exploration of similarities and differences between the concepts of leadership and management with the help of already available literature and research studies. Dimensions of leadership and management will be
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analyzed in theoretical and practical implementation of the concepts with the help of established and authentic studies. Research will be conducted in this paper in analytical manner including with the focus upon critical perspective of the view points about leadership and management.
Leadership and Management
In order to understand the premise of research that is discussion about the similarities and differences between leadership and management, first there is need to define the key terms included in heading. In the context of paper at hand, key terms are leadership and management. Leadership is a complex, multifaceted, and least understood phenomena and it is defined in various ways. It is the subject matter which thoroughly has been investigated by researchers and academic scholars. According to Lussier and Achua (2010) leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change (p. 6).
Describing the key elements of leadership, Lussier and Achua (2010) noted relationship with influence, leadership-followers, change, people, and organizational objectives. Comprehensively, considering wide leadership definition literature, it is concluded that despite of variety of leadership definition there are some specific components which have been found central in all leadership definitions. These key elements referred that primarily leadership is a process, it involves influence, it occurs in group context, and main focus is upon attainment of planned objectives.
Leader is a person who selects, trains, equips, and influences people or group of people who often termed as followers (Winston and Patterson, 2006). Leaders offer skills, abilities, and diverse gifts to followers in order to persuade them to participate enthusiastically in the achievement of certain objectives. Best suggested strategy in the pursuance of objectives
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carrying with followers, leaders demonstrate their vision succinctly and in a way which clearly matches with the beliefs and values of followers (Winston and Patterson, 2006). Followers only comply with the leader’s direction if they are able to interpret future vision of leader into current-time actions. Also, leaders use their critical thinking skill, intuition, persuasive rhetoric, insight, and interpersonal communication skills to influence followers in organizational context. Hogg (2001) discussed characteristics and behaviors of competent leaders as having creativity, vision, confidence, effective coaching skills, ability to maintain balance between group needs and individual needs, strong self esteem, and technical or conceptual expertise (p. 2).
On the other hand, management as defined by Koontz and Weihrich (2006) is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplishes se 


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