Leadership and Management: Understanding the Difference and Importance

Organization:
Leadership

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT.........................................................................................3
EVALUATE THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME........................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the quality of influencing other people to get their directions which lead
them towards the direction which leads them to the road to success or to their goal. Every leader
exercises different type of leadership style and personality in influencing the people. It is the
leader only who makes the mission and vision for him and or his whole organization. It is the
leader only who makes the plans and policies. Management refers to managing of resources in an
organization in such a way which achieves the goal of an organization. There are many
differences in leadership and management. In leadership, mission, values and vision is formed.
But in management mission, values and vision is being managed by following up of plans and
strategies. The management has five major functions which are as follows: Planning, organizing,
staffing, directing and controlling (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2012). There are many theories
based on leadership and their trait. These leadership theories help an individual to know about
how a leader performs or behave at a situation. From these theories, an individual can develop
leadership style in him. For reference purpose this report has taken an example of a company,
Next Plc. is a British multinational company which is specialize in selling the high quality
clothing, footwear, accessories and other things related to fashion. The company was establish in
the year 1864 and was founded by Joseph Hepworth. The company headquarters is in England.
This report discuss about the leadership and management, what are they and what the
major difference in between them are. Along with it the report also covers two major leadership
ship theories. The importance of leadership and why it is necessary in the development of
organization has also been included into the report. Apart from this the report also talks about the
benefits of leadership program for an individual and for organization.
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Leadership refers to a state or position where a person can influence an individuals or a
group of individuals. It is both a research area and practical traits which an individual exercise. A
leader is a person who decides for vision, mission and values for himself or for his organization.
It also refers to guiding an individual or a group of individuals for the attainment of desired goals
and objectives. A leader is said to be a person who sets an example for other to live up to. There
are unique qualities which one can find in a leader (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Some of these
qualities may include, empathic, thinks out of the box, risk takers, opportunity grabber,
innovative and creative thinking, confident, ability to inspire others and many more. The
leadership is not an easy task to carry on. A leader should have some potential and caliber to
inspire others and influence them to follow the path or direction which would let them in the
attainment of a specific objective or goal. It is said that the good leaders are made, not born, if a
person has that determination and willing power to become a good leader he can inculcate such
qualities and skills which are necessary through many mediums or sources. Some people
influence others through getting social with them, for example, Jesus Christ was a leader and he
influences the people by getting social with them and spreading the knowledge of wisdom. On

the other hand, some people use their power to influence the people, for example, a Dictator in a
country will use his power and gives command to his people or forks. And another can be an
example of a company’s boss where he exercises his powers to influence others in a design
direction for the attainment of a particular objective or goal (Chemers, 2014).
As in the case with Next Plc, the owner is consider to be a leader in this scenario because he is
the one who frames the visions and mission for the company. He is the one who thinks out of the
box and show the direction to the company and their people. The owner through his critical
thinking develops an innovative and creative idea which he believes that through that idea he can
take the whole industry into next high level. These people are ones who set standards; they
generate some innovative idea, work upon it and present it to their customers. As when a leader
comes up with innovative idea he creates a niche market for his company until others don’t
develop that technology or better idea compared to them.
Whereas management is a process of planning, organizing, decision making, directing
and controlling the functions of an organization. And a manager is a person who manages the
resources of an organization for the attainment of particular goal or objective. A manager
performs five major functions in his job and i.e. planning, organizing, staffing, directing and
controlling (Spillane, 2012). The manager task is to monitor that all the rules and regulations
been followed into the organization or not. He looks after his sub ordinates and team work and
coordinates with their work. He controls or takes over the responsibility of his department. There
are many managers who are assigned for different departments. A manager is responsible for
fiscal heath and performance of his department (Chowthi-Williams, 2018). He is the person who
represents his group or team members and presents all the problems or issue which their
department is facing to the company head or executives. The objectives and responsibilities of a
manager may includes, health and safety of the work force, development of a superior
workforce, meeting the goals of a department, maintain employee work schedule, delegate
responsibilities to employees and provide oversight and direction. Being a manager is not an
easy task, a person has to handle all the work of his sub ordinates or team member and solves
their grievances. To handle the work and responsibility, a manager should have some qualities;
some of these qualities are as follows: good communication skills so that he can communicate
the vision and mission to his team members, autonomous and also responsible for the
performance of his team, knowledge about the work, critical thinking and right decision makers,
political sense to handle the situation in organization and much more.
As in the case with company, Next plc, there are many managers who are responsible for their
department and department could be finance, marketing, sales, human resource, logistics and
many more. The manager is responsible in meeting his target given by a leader. A leader is a
person who forms the strategies and a manager is a person who follows the strategies for the
attainment of a particular goal or objective (Ciulla, 2014). As Next Plc is a very large
organization which serves worldwide, they have to adopt the system of decentralization where
the top level management people delegate the work to their middle level management people and