Difference Between Leader and Manager

This report discusses the difference between a leader and a manager, focusing on their roles and functions in an organization. It explores the impact of the work environment on managers and the leadership styles and approaches of leaders. The report also discusses the concept of situational leadership and how managers need to adapt their behavior based on the situation.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Leader and managers these are two terms that are often used interchangeably but are
significantly different from each other. The difference in them will be discussed in report.
MAIN BODY
Question 1
I strongly agree with this statement that major determinant of work of managers is nature
of the environment and managers have to work in situation in which they find themselves.
Role of leader and functions of managers are significantly different from each other. Role
of leaders are affected by their leadership style and personality and functions of managers get
affected by their work environment and work requirements.
Question 2
a) The role of a Leader
Different theories outline different styles and approaches of leadership. These theories
also outline some of the roles that leader plays in organisation (Balwant, 2019). Transformational
leadership is one of highly recognised theory, some roles of leader based on this theory are-
Intellectual Stimulator (able to encourage and motivate others to be creative and innovative)
Idealised Influencer (capable of modelling the behaviour that leader expect from followers)
Individualised Consideration (instead of considering everyone equal, identifying capabilities of
individual and giving required support)
Inspirational Motivator (inspiring followers through appealing vision)
b) The functions of a Manager
Several functions are carried out by managers and function of managers identified by
Henri Fayol are-

Planning- Planning for future conditions, developing strategic objectives and securing
achievement of future goals
Organising- Organising workforce in efficiently and structure and align activities of
organisation along with recruiting and training right person for job
Commanding- Supervising subordinates in their daily work and inspire them to achieve goals
Coordinating- Harmonising procedures and activities performed by the company and ensure
every activity of organisation complement and enrich each other
Controlling- controlling activities of the organisation in line with general policies of company
and its objectives (Conaway, 2017). Followed by this managers also need to report deviation
from plans and objectives and make initiatives to correct deviations.
Above discussion involves differentiation in roles of leader and functions of manager.
This means that leaders create vision and managers plan and execute planning to achieve them.
Question 3
Situation leadership is one in which leader is expected to change their behaviour
according to the situation (Meier, 2016). This means that as a manager I will require to change
my behaviour on the basis of three elements that are-
 Task Behaviour
 Relationship Behaviour
 Maturity level of employees
On the basis of these elements I will require to change my behaviour. For Example, if employees
in the team are not willing to take any responsibility and they are also not capable to working on
their own in such situation I will need to adopt Telling style of leadership. In this I need to tell
them what to do as well as how to do the task.

On the other hand contingency leadership involves that if as a manager my style of
leadership match the situation, this is only situation in which I will succeed as leader (Kulkarni,
2017).
CONCLUSION
On the basis of discussion it can be concluded that leadership and management are two
different terms and this is why their roles and functions are also different.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Balwant, P., 2019. Stay close! The role of leader distance in the relationship between
transformational leadership, work engagement, and performance in undergraduate
project teams. Journal of Education for Business. 94(6). pp.369-380.
Conaway, R.N., 2017. Redefining Functions of a Manager. Managing for Responsibility: A
Sourcebook for an Alternative Paradigm.
Kulkarni, V., 2017. Contingency Theory. The International Encyclopedia of Organizational
Communication, pp.1-6.
Meier, D., 2016. Situational Leadership Theory as a Foundation for a Blended Learning
Framework. Journal of Education and Practice. 7(10). pp.25-30.