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Leadership Styles and Contingency Theory

   

Added on  2020-01-07

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ORGANISATION: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENTSTUDENT NAME:STUDENT ID:UNIVERSITY:
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IntroductionThe concepts of leadership and management are such that they go hand in hand. Both theconcepts are interlinked with each other. This is because in order to become an able manager it isnecessary to possess good leadership qualities. On the other hand, a person cannot be an efficientleader if the individual is unable to manage the people who look up to him. In the presentedessay an elaborate, detailed discussion is made regarding these two concepts. The main objectiveof the essay is to know the functions and responsibilities of a leader, a manager within anyorganisational field, along with related skills, traits which are required.Define and differentiate the ideas of management and leadershipThe terms leadership and management basically possess two separate ideas. However in spite ofbeing different from each other, there exist certain characteristics which are present in both thecontext of leadership and management. The term leadership basically refers to the ability, skillwhich is needed in order to grow and develop confidence, fortitude and avidity among people sothat they become willing to be piloted. Hence it can be said that leadership is a kind of processwhich gives the power to an individual to influence other people in terms of achieving orattaining a certain set of goals or objectives. Leadership suggests innovation. Instead offollowing others, it urges an individual to lead the way, gives power to the leader to takedecisions regarding the certain matter (Goetsch and Davis, 2014, p.10). Since an efficient leaderpossess the power of influencing others people, the former is also accountable to the latter. If aleader is good then it encourages people to follow their concerned leader concerning anydecisions in critical circumstances. So it can be said, the chief emphasis of the leader remains onthe management of people. One of the chief leadership traits is inspiring people to trust. Thismeans that irrespective of the condition of the situation, the leader gets the trust of his people.Any decision made by the leader without a doubt is accepted by his people. The chief objectiveof the leader is to encourage development regarding the certain matter on a long term basis. Itcan be said, one objective of the leader is to accomplish certain goals that are based for a longtime (Nahavandi, 2016, p.180). Challenging the conventions, trying to bring change for the betterin the existing working system and ushering the general people in the process is the chieffunction of the leading individual. The main essence of efficient leadership is to be original and
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maintain originality while framing goals or objectives. This means objectives which define theoriginality of the leader, which makes the leading individual someone different from the generalmass. Based on the behaviour and attitude, leadership styles can be categorised into foursections, authoritarian or autocratic leadership, paternalistic leadership style, free-rein or laissez-faire leadership and participative or democratic leadership (Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015, p.433).The term management, on the other hand, defines the efficient process of dexterity and masteryover people coordination and management in order to accomplish certain goals and objectivesrelated to the organisation. The process of management chiefly deals with five responsiblefunctions which involve organising, planning, staffing, controlling and directing human efforts inorder to achieve the set of objectives which are given in a company or an organisation.Therefore, in simplest terms, it can be said that management is the art of administering humanresources within an organisation. This can be better explained with the help of some examples.In an organisation, a manager based on the organisational objectives frames a proper planningregarding how the methods, ways by which human resource can be utilised. Therefore, themanager constructs and puts forth certain short-term goals among the working employees; this,in turn, helps the concerned working members to set their respective goals and work accordingly(Choudhary et al. 2013, p.440). An efficient manager knows the ways and means which can beapplied in the order in order to control and manage his subordinates. The chief function ofmanagement resides within the framework of the organisation, hence, unlike a leader, themanager works as per the stated rules and regulations of the organisation, accepting theconventional status-quo in the process. A manager is a classic example of a good soldier. Thismeans the manager controls and operates the tasks and functions which are stated by theorganisational heads. There are many responsibilities and duties of a manager. However, thereexist four mentions worthy traits which need to be considered in order to define a true, capablemanagerial individual; these are performance, motivation, effort and satisfaction. An efficientmanager knows how to get a particular job done from his team members irrespective of any kindof obstacles or hindrance. The factor of motivation is another chief factor of a good manager(Armstrong and Taylor, 2014, p.15). In order to get a job done by the employees, the managerneeds to considerate enough to motivate his working members. This means the manager needs tobe observant, he must know and acknowledge the skills, appraising capabilities and talents of theemployees. Acknowledgement and recognition from the manager encourages the employees to
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give their best in their work. The effort is another factor which needs to be considered. Thismeans the manager must make the effort to work harder for the development and betterment ofthe concerned organisation. In order to accomplish this factor, the manager must always devisemethods and plans in order to strive for excellence, growth and overall development of theorganisation. Satisfaction, this is another point which plays a major role in deciding theefficiency of the manager. The manager must strive to be someone who can maintain a balancebetween working objectives and harmonious coordination of working member (Rothaermel,2015, p.5). As observed from above, the roles and responsibilities of leadership and management aresomewhat similar in nature. The chief objectives of a leader and a manager are to accomplish aset of goals and objectives to their people. Both the leaders as well as the manager areresponsible for explaining the vision of the objectives which is needed to be fulfilled. In order todo this, these two individuals possess the responsibility to motivate their concerned people; theyalso need to know the art of mobilising resources as per requirement. Each of them acts as theorganisational figureheads in their respective working system. However, at the same time, inspite of possessing similarity, there exists certain traits and characteristics which do differentiatethese two terms. In simplest terms, it can be explained that a leader possesses the trait oforiginality. On the other hand, a manager works under the existing status quo of an organisation(Lussier and Achua, 2015, p.15). A leading individual possesses the advantage of creating hisown vision and strategies as per the goals he wants to achieve. He creates his own values whichothers follow. On the other hand, since manager works under an organisation, he is expected tofollow the stated organisational procedures and policies and also urges others to do the same.Instead of creating, the manager observes and abides by the values which are set, and also makessure the other working members are following those values (Chemers, 2014, p.100).Inspiration and influence define the trait of leadership, while control and power suggestmanagement capability. In order to do a certain work, for instance, a leader influences andinspires the people to follow the same path, to work for the similar objective. People follow theleader out of respect and trust, believing the leading individual possesses the ability to usherchange. Hence, it can be said that the chief focus of the leader is the people. The manager, on theother hand, works under the system of the organisation. Therefore, the chief focus of the
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