Manager vs. Leader: Roles, Characteristics, and Functions

This report provides a comprehensive comparison between the roles of managers and leaders within an organizational context. It differentiates between leadership and management by examining their distinct characteristics, functions, and perspectives. The report highlights that leaders focus on vision, motivation, and long-term goals, while managers concentrate on structure, systems, and short-term objectives. It delves into the hard management skills required by managers, such as domain knowledge and understanding of organizational structure, and the soft leadership skills of leaders, including self-awareness and emotional intelligence. The report also analyzes the application of various leadership theories, such as human relation theory, classical management theory, contingency theory and behavioral theory, to demonstrate how managers and leaders utilize different approaches to achieve organizational goals. The conclusion emphasizes the vital contributions of both managers and leaders to organizational success. This report is designed to help students and professionals better understand the differences between managers and leaders.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Compare characteristics and roles of a
manager and leader
 Leadership is an ability which helps an individual to lead a group of people or an
organization in a better manner towards a common and desired goal and objectives.
 Leaders develop a common vision which helps them to lead their followers or
employees (Buch, Thompson and Kuvaas, 2016).
 Whereas, management is a kind of an act through which managers coordinate and
organize organizational activities towards desired mission, goals and objectives that are
set by their or organizational leaders.

Continue… Leader Manager
Definition Leaders are those persons who motivates all
of their followers and organizational
employees so that they can move on a
correct path and achieve their desired goals
and objectives. They also help them in
motivating their employees so that their
overall performance as well as productivity
can be enhanced (Bush, Bell and
Middlewood, 2019).
A manager within an organization is
responsible for managing all kind of work in
desired format in every format. They are also
responsible for achieving organizational aims
and objectives.
Roles Main role of leaders is to focus on work i.e.
whether work is being carried out in correct
direction and appropriately. Leaders guide
their employees so that they can work in an
appropriate manner and accomplish a task
on time.
One of the main role of managers is to
manage all kinds of task and activities of an
organization in an appropriate manner.
managers are required to make sure that all
the employees complete work that are
assigned to them.

Continue…
Focus Leaders focus on employees Whereas managers focus on structure and
system.
Characteristics Leaders are required to have various
characteristics that helps them to lead and
achieve desired goals in a better manner.
Some of the most common features of
leaders are: confidence, motivator, caring,
excellent decision makers, commitment
towards their work, creative, innovative
thinkers etc.
Managers are required to have various
characteristics that helps them to fulfil their
responsibilities in a better manner. Some of
the most common features of a manager are:
positive attitude, patience, flexibility,
accountability, fast response, reliability and
many more.
Perspective Leaders have a long-term perspective Whereas managers have a short-term view.

Functions of a manager and leaders are as
follows
Leaders
 One of the main and primary function of leader is to set objectives and goals for their
employees of team members in order to achieve a task. Goals and objectives set by
leaders of Tesco helps them to motivate their employees to achieve or fulfil their roles
and responsibilities in a better manner.
 Leaders organize all the activities and resources of a task so that all the resources are
made available to right employees whenever required.
 Leaders take initiation and take decision whenever required without depending upon
anyone.

Continue…
Managers:
 One of the main functions of a manager is to plan all the needs of an organization.
 Organizing all kinds of management control is another important feature of a manager
in order to maintain organizational functions and carry out all the day to day
organizational activities in a proper manner (Ceri-Booms, Curşeu, and Oerlemans,
2017).
 Managers monitor and control all organizational activities so that every this is carried
out according to the plan and desired format.
 Managers direct all the employees of an organization so that they can fulfil their
desired goals and objectives.

Hard management skills of managers
All kinds of managers have some Hard management Skills so that they can fulfil their roles
and responsibilities in a proper manner as well as leaders are required to have some soft
leadership skills.
 Managers full domain knowledge because without it they cannot make their employees
understand main requirements of the task or action.
 Managers have complete knowledge of the organizational structure so that they can
take proper and appropriate decision (Little, Gooty and Williams, 2016).
 One of the most important hard skill that managers have is to have proper knowledge of
their customers so that company can understand their potential customer’s needs,
desires and requirements in order to design products and services for them.

Soft leadership skills of leaders
 Self-awareness is an important and desired skill by the leaders to have so that they can
evaluate strengths and weakness of the organization and take required decisions
accordingly.
 Leaders should always be keen on learning from their past experiences so that they can
understand and evaluate their mistake and make sure that they do not repeat that
mistake in future (Chiu, Balkundi and Weinberg, 2017).
 One of the most important soft skill leaders have is emotional intelligence. This skill
helps them to understand their employees demands and needs in a better manner.
 Leaders also motivate their employees so that they can engage themselves within their
work in an appropriate manner.

Analyse role of a leader and function of a
manager applying effective theories
Managers:
 Managers role within an organization is to manage working of all the employees so that they
can fulfil their duties in a proper and effective manner. In order to manage working of all the
employees they manage all the resources of an organization.
 According to theory of human relation, managers understand their relation with their employees
by analysing their needs, requirements and desires in a proper and effective manner.
 There are many other theories that can be used to understand role and functions of a manager
like classical management theory. As per the theory, employees only have economic and
physical needs.
 So according to this this theory, managers focus on improving output of employees by
rewarding their performance. For example by providing employees with additional rewards for
achieving their target can help them motivate their employees and enhance their overall
performance.

Continue…
Leaders:
 Leaders role within an organization is to focus on enhancing their employee performance
by leading their team effectively, motivating them in order to increase their productivity
and performance.
 There are various kinds of theories that can be used to explain role and function of a leader
such as contingency theory, behavioural theory, trait theory and many more (Furtner,
Maran and Rauthmann, 2017). In organizations like Tesco they use behavioural theory as
they analyse behaviour of their employees, use different kinds of motivation techniques in
other to motivate them.
 According to employee’s performance and their behaviour, leaders shows their employees
a path to move on. According to contingency theory leaders be contingent i.e. their
leadership style is according to the situation.
 Leaders find a way to match their leadership style according to the situation so that they
can show proper and correct path to their employees.

Conclusion
 From the above presentation, it has been summarized that both managers and leaders
play a vital role in within an organization that helps them to achieve desired goal and
objectives.
 Both leaders and managers have different role within an organization, has different
characteristics and skill as well.

References
 Buch, R., Thompson, G. and Kuvaas, B., 2016. Transactional leader–member exchange
relationships and followers’ work performance: The moderating role of leaders’ political skill.
Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23(4), pp.456-466.
 Bush, T., Bell, L. and Middlewood, D. eds., 2019. Principles of Educational Leadership &
Management. SAGE Publications Limited.
 Ceri-Booms, M., Curşeu, P. L. and Oerlemans, L. A., 2017. Task and person-focused leadership
behaviors and team performance: A meta-analysis. Human Resource Management Review. 27(1).
pp.178-192.
 Chiu, C.Y.C., Balkundi, P. and Weinberg, F.J., 2017. When managers become leaders: The role of
manager network centralities, social power, and followers' perception of leadership. The
Leadership Quarterly. 28(2). pp.334-348.
 Furtner, M.R., Maran, T. and Rauthmann, J.F., 2017. Dark leadership: The role of leaders’ dark
triad personality traits. In Leader Development Deconstructed (pp. 75-99). Springer, Cham.
 Little, L.M., Gooty, J. and Williams, M., 2016. The role of leader emotion management in
leader–member exchange and follower outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly. 27(1). pp.85-97.

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