Leadership and Management Styles: A Comparative Analysis

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
1. What is involved in being a successful leader?...........................................................................3
2. Explanation of developing good leadership with proper justification:........................................7
3. What distinguishes leadership from management?......................................................................9
Definition of Leadership................................................................................................10
Definition of Management.............................................................................................11
4. What have you personally learnt about leadership from your own experiences, on this course
and elsewhere?...............................................................................................................................12
Reference list.................................................................................................................................15
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1. What is involved in being a successful leader?
In management, leadership plays a crucial role that significantly helps to maximise
efficiency and also contribute to achieving organisational goals. Initiating actions, bringing
motivation and creating confidence within the organisation are the key benefits of having a
good trait of successful leadership. There are three major theories that have been elaborated
for giving proper support to the success of leadership.
Figure 1: Leadership theories
(Source: Gomez and Rosen, 2001)
Under the leadership theories, there are three major types which are Individual, contextual
and relational. The chosen theories are great man theory, path-goal theory and the
transformational theories which have given an inner depth idea about the responsible factors
behind a successful leader.
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IndividualContextualRelational

 The Great Man theory:
According to Lunenburg (2010, p. 3), the great man theory highly focuses on inborn
qualities rather than the influence of the external environment. The implication of the theory
shows that a leader is inborn with a range of capabilities and special qualities that differs
him from others.
Application:
The heredity and genes play a major role in order to acquire leadership qualities from the
family. However, the theory has been highly criticised and further explanations have shown
that someone with the inborn leadership qualities does not always become a leader in all
scenarios. Irrespective of biological factors like personality, intelligence, and
communicational behavior, an individual cannot always end up as a leader. The probability
of the inherent traits can only be considered as the responsible factor in this theory.
Therefore, the inherent traits can bring high capabilities in an individual to become a
potential leader. However, it has been massively contradicted by modern scientists.
Figure 2: The traits of the great man theories
(Source: Lunenburg, 2010, p. 3)
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 The path-goal Theory
The certain theory is precisely based on the foundation of Vroom’s expectancy theory. As
stated by Avery and Ryan (2002, p. 243), the individual involved in the scenario tends to act
in a certain way that depends on the individual’s expectation.
Figure 3: path-goal theory factors
(Source: Avery and Ryan 2002, p. 243)
Application:
The application of the theory shows that the behavioural style of the leader or the behaviour
that is followed to achieve the organisation goal. In such cases, the leader tends to set
principles of the leading styles according to the employees as well as the working
environment. On the other hand, not having proper control over the employees and the
workforce can lead to a failure of the theory. By applying this theory, it is manifested that
the motivation of the employees is increased along with empowering and proper satisfaction
so that they can perform at their best level. Employee and work environment contingencies
can be significantly achieved.
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 Transformational Leadership:
Making high-level performance and workforce is seen to be growing on a daily basis. As a
consequence, business leaders are required to inspire organisational employees to go beyond
their work schedule. Transformational leadership is one of the structural leadership which
has been exclusively explained in the following section with its application.
Application:
In accordance with Holten and Brenner (2015, p. 4), Transformational leadership can be
found in any of the organisational kind, likewise departments, divisions, etc. These leaders
are very inspiring along with large visions, good motivators, risk takers and charismatic
personality. However, the sole presence of charisma is not sufficient while dealing with the
staffs in an organisation. In order to bring vast changes for efficiency, the leaders are
required to apply the following steps.
Figure 4: Transformational leadership
(Source: Iqbal et al. 2015, p. 2)
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Inspirational motivation: The identification of transformational leaders have the vision,
mission and the capacity to look beyond the knowledgable skills.
Intellectual stimulators: They always guide their followers to do innovative and creative
work. In addition to that, they also appreciate the people who come with new ideas and
never criticise them for any kind of mistakes.
Idealised influence: According to Iqbal et al. (2015, p. 2) the leaders believe that they can
influence followers when a person wants to do hard work. Thus, the leaders always act as a
role model for them who seeks their ideas.
Indevidualised consideration: Leaders act as a motivator to their followers and rewards
them for their hard work.
In the application of these ideas, it has been noticed that transformational leadership can
always be successful but it can be a huge burden for many staffs those who can not come
out as a leader. On the other hand, it also fails to give competition to others in an
organisation and leads to a severe problem.
2. Explanation of developing good leadership with proper justification:
Leadership can be developed with proper strategies and dedication. In terms of developing
leadership, it is highly required to acknowledge and understand the role of a good leader in
an organisational basis. Developing proper leadership requires technical skills coupled with
soft skills as well. It can play a significant role in career development. Accomplishing a
successful leadership skill can get an individual to an important stand of a career with
anticipated performance. The following skills are required in order to develop and shape an
ideal leader.
 Taking initiatives
 Effective communication
 Effective listening skill
 Motivating others in workplace or followers
 Following strict discipline
 Learning constantly
 Delegating skills
 Conflict handling
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 Critical thinking abilities
The way how good leadership can be achieved:
In order to develop proper leadership, it is highly required to have patience and hard
working abilities to achieve the organisation goal. According to Popli and Rizvi, (2016,
968), it is observed by applying the Great Man’s Theory that actual leaders are born with
adequate skills. It is assumed as part of the theory that such leaders are not made as they
born with certain capabilities to lead their followers by possessing required skill sets. In
addition to that, a great leader can influence the entire group of followers by having the
inborn qualities of leadership. In case of leaders like Mao Tse Tung, Abraham Lincon, and
Mahatma Gandhi, the importance and presence of the Great Man theory are considered.
However, it can be argued that such leadership qualities are not inborn apart from the fact of
inherited qualities of heredity.
The Transformational Theory has shown another dimension of leadership facts that can
highly contradict the Great Man theory. It is seen that, by applying the transformational
theory, a leader can bring minor to major changes that can help him to achieve the
organisational aim and goals. It can be found at different levels of an organisation from
operating teams to all the divisions of the departments. As suggested by Avery and Ryan
(2002, p. 243), the leaders are known to be quite inspiring and risk takers along with
thoughtful thinking abilities. Therefore, it is not only limited to the inherited qualities that a
leader gets as part of their birth privilege. It requires inspirational motivation to motivate
followers with stimulating intelligence within the work environment. Influencing others and
considering the individual presence is also a major factor that can help to develop good
leadership.
As influenced by Holten and Brenner (2015, p. 3), in case of the Path-Goal Theory, an
individual can achieve a good leadership by analysing the work environment and applying
leadership that fits best for the employees working within the same environment.
Compensating the shortcomings, the leader can complement the followers or the employees
for better results in the long term. The task-oriented factor of this theory also matches with
the situational leadership that aids to mitigate work environmental issues. The behavior and
the leadership style to motivate the employees are highly considered to bring necessary
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improvement to achieve the organisation goal. This can contradict the principle of the
transformational theory that indicates to bring changes without having a proper analysis of
the work environment.
3. What distinguishes leadership from management?
As sitated by Bush et al. (2019, p.77), leadership and the management both are different
from each other but they are very essential for the company. In terms of managing as well as
developing a business it is essential for the business owner to have effective leaders and the
managers. In this case it can be seen that leadership is about getting people to understand
and believe in their vision and to work with the leader to achieve the goals while managing
is more about administering and making sure the day-to-day things are happening as they
should (McCaffery, 2018, p.10). However, there are some common characteristics that the
managers as well as the leaders need to have.
Thus, the characteristics of the managers are
 Develop proper vision to develop the workplace along with the performance of the
organization.
 The managers must have the ability to handle the day to day activities of the
company, review the overall resources of the business and so on.
 Developing the process management of the business (Weiss et al. 2019, p.99).
 Take care the employees, their demands and needs as well as involving them in the
workplace activities in a proper way.
On the other hand, the characteristics of the leaders are
 The leaders must have the ability to believe people and their subordinates.
 They also need to develop some vision for the employees which can be helpful for
them to develop their activities.
 Motivation or inspiration is another effective part. By motivating the employees the
leaders can easily develop their overall performance.
 The leaders also must be communicative or they must have proper communication
skills.
According to Hallinger, (2018, p.365), thus, the leaders are the managers have some
impactful differences which can provide effects on the activities of the employees or the
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company. With the help of the below table the key differences of leadership and
management can be identified in a well manner.
Sources: Hallinger and Hammad, (2019, p.20)
Definition of Leadership
As per early discussion it can be seen that the leadership is an essential part. The skill of leading
a group of people as well as inspiring them towards a direction can be identified as the
leadership. With the help of the interpersonal process the leaders can influence the subordinate or
a group for developing their activities. Like this they can easily achieve their goals or objectives
in a proper way.
In this case it can be seen that, this is not the lesson to be taught, but a quality which is possessed
by only a few number of people. As per Castillo and Hallinger, (2018, p.207), the person who
owns this quality is known as a leader. Basically, the leaders positively influence the people to
follow them. In this situation it can be analyzed that, the leadership is the activity of directing as
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well as guiding the people for working together in terms of achieving the goals. Thus, they must
have good vision to develop the activities in positive way.
In the company, there can be a number of leaders who are responsible for the work of their
team members. They effectively handle the activities of the staffs and manage their
performances which may help them to meet the organizational goals. Thus, with the help of
the leadership the company can gain proper success in their business process. In the case of
the business environment it can be seen that the leadership cannot be limited to the persons,
but the company may also attain the leadership in market with the help of defeating
the rivals.
Definition of Management
Along with the leadership the management is another impactful and essential part of the
business. The word management is a combination of four terms, i.e. man+age+men+t which can
be identified as the technique. Thus, the management technique can effectively use the
employees to achieve the common organizational goals of the business.
The management effectively manages the overall business process as well as the activities of the
business. The managers have some key functions which help them to develop the management of
the organization. The functions and their relation with the management have been given below
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Sources: Kutz, (2018, p.33)
Planning: The mangers properly plan the activities of the company. With the help of the
planning the management process can be developed in the company.
Organizing: The managers also organize the operations which influence them to develop
their management level.
Staffing: The management of the staffs and recruiting efficient staffs can be helpful for the
management to develop the activities of the company.
Leading as well as directing: The managers direct and lead the activities of the company.
This also can influence the managers to develop the overall management of the business
(Upadhyay and Gangele, 2018, p.2).
Controlling and coordinating: The control and coordination of the managers can develop the
performances of the business along with the management also.
4. What have you personally learnt about leadership from your own experiences, on
this course and elsewhere?
I have learned different things regarding leadership after attending the season. I have learned
different leadership styles and approaches in the module and in real life situation I can apply
those to solve my different problems. Now I am a student and in future this learning can
definitely help me to solve organizational problems effectively. Employees are facing many
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