BMA6115 - Leadership and Management: Exploring Leadership Theories

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership and management, discussing the qualities of a successful leader, including vision, courage, and integrity. It explores various leadership theories such as the Big Five personality traits, path-goal theory, transformational leadership, and leader-member exchange theory, highlighting their role in developing effective leadership skills. The report also differentiates between leadership and management, emphasizing the distinct functions and qualifications required for each. Furthermore, it incorporates a self-reflective approach, examining personal experiences and learnings related to leadership gained from the course and elsewhere, ultimately concluding with key insights into enhancing individual leadership abilities. Desklib offers a range of study tools and solved assignments to aid students in their academic pursuits.

Leadership and
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
What is involved in being a successful leader?......................................................................1
Can good leadership be developed and if so, how?...............................................................3
Differences Between Leadership and Management...............................................................5
A self-reflective approach to leadership of individual experiences on this course and
elsewhere................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to an attempt aimed at influencing and affecting the people directly in
order to achieve given goals of the organisation. Leadership may also be defined as an art or
process of influencing the behaviours and actions of people so that they strive willingly and
enthusiastically towards the attainment of communal goals. The report will include an discussion
about the qualities of good leader such as polite, decisive, motivating, etc. Moreover, the report
will cover an analysis of leadership theories and practices that are seen in the abilities of good
leader. Further the report will include an description of leadership and management and how
these are different from each other in terms of their use and application by people. At the end the
report will cover an analysis of the individual learnings and experiences about the leadership that
are helpful to enhance the ability of individuals to be a good manager.
MAIN BODY
What traits should be involved in an effective leaer?
For being a successful leader it is important to have clear vision, courageous, integrity,
honesty and should have clear focus as well. Great leaders help in terms of reaching towards
their goals and also not afraid in terms of hiring people who might be better than them. In terms
of accomplishments they also take pride that help along the way(Al Thani and Obeidat.,2020).
For becoming an effective leader, it is important that to have some common traits which include
sharing of vision, set an example, demonstrate integrity and also communicate into effective
manner. In addition to this, leader have to make hard decisions, recognise success, empower
others and inspire their team members to achieve their goals. There are certain theories which
supports in terms of becoming a successful leader from individual, contextual and relational
aspect and it is defined into following manner:
Big five personality traits: This is a theory which is related to broad categories of
personality traits and each factor of this trait ranges between two extremes. The five categories
are defined into the following manner:
 Openness: There are certain characteristics of this particular trait such as imagination
and insight and those who have broad range of imterests then those people are high in this
trait. These kind of people are also eager to learn new things and also they have curiosity
about the world and also enjoy experiences as well.
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 Conscientiousness: This trait has certain standard features which include goal-oriented
behaviours, good impulse control, high level of thinking(Wakabi., 2016). People who
have high level of conscientiousness are tend to be organised and also have mindful
details as well. These kind of people think about how their behaviours affect others, plan
ahead and also mindful for deadlines as well.
 Extraversion: It is basically characterised by assertiveness, sociability, high amount of
emotional expressiveness and talkativeness (Krapfl and Kruja., 2015). They gain energy
in social situations who are high in terms of extraversion and also outgoing in terms of
nature.
 Agreeableness: This dimension of personality generally includes certain attributes such
as altruism, kindness, trust, and other behaviours of pro social level as well. People who
are more cooperative are generally high in terms of agreeableness factor and people who
are competitive and manipulative are low in terms of this trait.
 Neuroticism: It is a dimension which is characterised by moodiness, sadness and
instability of emotional level. Those who have mood swings, irritability, sadness and
anxiety as well are high in this trait. Those who are more emotionally resilient and have
more stability as well have low level in this trait.
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Illustration : Big five personality traits
Source: Wiki- grafik peats-de big five ENG.png -

These personality traits help in terms of becoming a good and successful leader as well. There is
also another theory which support in terms of becoming a good leader and it is defined into
following manner:
Path goal theory: This theory refers to that parameter of behaviour of leader who are
contingent up to the level of satisfaction, motivation and performance of their employees. (Burns
and Mooney., 2018). The theory also states that leaders have to engage themselves in dissimilar
kinds of behaviour of leadership which totally depends on demand and nature of the situation
within the hand. It is basically role of a leader to suppport in terms of achieving goals and also
provide direction as well(Moral and et.al.,2018). They also provide support which ensures that
goals are compatible within the organisation goals. This theory also assumes that leaders are
flexible and they can change their style according to the situation requirement. These are the
main principles of this theory which support in terms of becoming a good and effective leader.
This theory also support in terms of becoming a successful leader. It has been observed that
according to Katz, there are some conceptual skills that have in a successful leader. It is the
ability to visualise an organisation in a whole manner and to become a good leader human skills
are also important. The efficient leader has high levels of interpersonal, business, cognitive,
strategic and business skills as well. The leadership organisational problems can also be resolved
through connection between leader's knowledge, performance and skills as well. In this way, an
effective leader can become and these are the certain traits which should be involved into
successful leader.
How can good leadership be developed ?
Good leadership can be developed into positive manner. There are basically certain
theories through which leadership can be developed it is defined into the following manner:
Transformational Leadership: It is a type of leadership style where leaders motivate,
encourage and inspire workforce in order to create change and innovate which support in terms
of growth and shaping the success of the company. Transformational leadership can be
accomplished through an example of level of executive through corporate culture, independence
and ownership of employees in the workplace(Hariri and et.al.,2016).Under this kind of
leadership style, it highlights more about the standards of moral level and eplains about ethical
work environment with clear standards, priorities and values. This kind of leadership also hold
an emphasis on cooperation, authenticity and open communication as well. It also provides
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mentoring and coaching to employees and also allows for employees to make decisions and take
ownership of tasks as well. There are certain good examples of transformational leadership and
they are named into the following manner:
 Jeff Bezos(Amazon): Jeff Bezos is a leader who basically belongs from finance
background and gives a new eperience with support of his experiences of various years in
a disimilar industry.
 Steve Jobs and Tim Cook(Apple): Steve Jobs is an innovative leader for building
software ecosytem and original Microsoft products as well (Wilson and et.al.,2017).
Cook is an individual who has extended Job's vision for maintaining a focus on software,
innovation and brand loyalty as well.
 Reed Hastings(Netflix): He is a leader who is from software industry and wasn't rooted
in the process of pre-established and procedure in the television industry as well.
This leadership style or leadership model also help in terms of becoming a good leader and there
are also some theory which can be defined into following manner :
Leader member exchange theory: This is a kind of teory which refers to the leader and its
followers to develop unique relationship that is totally based on quality of exhanges and social
exchanges within an organisation that can influence outcomes of employees. There are some
strengths of leader member exchange theory which is defined into following manner:
It is an exceptional theory of leadership which is unlike to other theories and this is
majorly focused towards relationship between subordinates and the leader. It is a theory of robust
explanatory level and which is more focused towards importance of communication in
leadership. Communication is a medium through which subordinates and leaders develop,
maintain and grow beneficial exchanges. When this communication is accompanied by certain
features such as respect, mutual trust and devotion which leads towards the effective
leadership(Samad and et.al., 2015). Although this theory is helpful in terms of developing
effective leadership but it somewhere it fails to explain the particulars of how high-quality
exchanges are created. This theory is objected on the grounds of justice and fairness as some
followers receive special attention of leaders at workplace and other followers do not.
It has been observed that leaders definitely do support for the members of the in-group
and may reach to such extent of inflating their ratings on poor performance as well. Through
support of these theories an effective leadership can be developed due to which these leaders can
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support their team members into positive manner. Transformational leadership and leader
member exchange theory are the two effective theories due to which it is easier to develop
vision and goals for the organisation and their team members as well.
Qualities of an effective leader: Good leadership also have certain qualities due to which that
leader can lead the organisation or its team into effective manner. A good leader should have
clear vision about their vision and goal so that accordingly steps have to be taken(Paletta,
Bezzina and Alimehmeti, 2020).An effective leader has the ability to motivate and inspire people
so that their team members achieve tasks within a set period of time. A leader should have the
quality that in which manner they can lead the organisation towards path road of success and
stand strongly into this competitive world.
Differences Between Leadership and Management
A manager is also a leader because they operates and performs functions of leadership for
their departments or units. A person who is a leader may not be a manager because the managers
requires specific qualification and has to go through the interviews and tests in order to be a
manager (Bryant and Walker, 2021). There is no such requirements related to the educational
qualifications or academic degree or interview and tests, to be a leader. The concept of leadership
is comparatively small as compared to management because a good manager may be a leader as
well but a leader may not be a manager. There are exceptional academic qualifications that are
required by a manager along-with good leadership ability but a leader do not require any such
qualification or ability.
Leadership
As explained earlier the meaning of leadership is the ability of individual to influence the
behaviour of other people so they work in the alignment and according to the directions to
achieve group goals (Creed and et. al., 2021). Leadership can be seen at any position, that may
be at the level of superior or subordinate. Leadership may grow within or can be witnessed in the
ability of an individual working along the other group members to lead and motivate others to an
task effectively to achieve certain goal. The leaders work along-with their teams to achieve an
estimated goal, they work together and in coordination to chive the goals.
Management
Management is different to that of leadership, because management refers to the process
of planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling, coordinating, resourcing and budgeting
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the activities of a business, people or groups. Management is very vast function that requires
many functions to be performed by an individual (Griffith, 2020). To be an manager, individual
require to possess certain specific and quantifiable skills that tells about their ability or
qualification to be an manager. Management may or may not possess the abilities of leader
because to be an manager it is not an compulsion to have this skill to be a manager. It is preferred
that manages should possess leadership skills to manage people effectively because managers
needs to manage people as well.
Differences between leadership and management
Differences between leadership and management are as follows:
Basis Management Leadership
Concept Management is a wider concept as it
includes leadership and its functions
are diverse, e.g. every manager is a
leader but every leader is not a
manager(Hejazi and Nazarpoori,
2020).
Leadership is a narrow concept that
is a part of management that isn't a
compulsion to a manager, e.g. the
head of a worker's union is a leader
but not a manager.
Function Management includes many functions
that are related to a business such as
plan, organise, direct, control and
coordinate the organisational activities
to achieve organisational goals.
A leadership is concerned with the
motivating and encouraging or
influencing people in such a manner
that all the people contributes
effectively towards group goals.
Applicability Management functions are applicable
only at formal structures such as
organisation because there are no
mangers in a informal group.
Leader is found at various places and
applicability of leadership can be
done to any formal or informal
groups, such as election
(Höddinghaus and Hertel, 2021).
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Authority Management uses formal authority or
position and powers to direct their
subordinates (Kuşakçı and Busatlic,
2021).
Leaders exercises their influencing
power on the people through their
qualities and informal authority.
Qualification Managers needs quantifiable attributes
meaning they require a proof of their
ability to be an manager, such as a
document of qualifications.
Leaders do not require any specific
qualification, although they may be
qualified and possess different
abilities (Lee, 2021).
Tasks Managers needs to perform various
tasks such as managing people and
operations in order to achieve
organisational goals.
Leaders needs to perform certain
tasks such as influencing people and
working along them to achieve their
goals.
Approaches and
functions or
their roles
 Organise
 Plan
 Authority And Responsibility
 Control Employee Functions
 Specialisation
 Risk Evaluation and
 Innovator
 Visionary
 Seek Responsibility
 Creative
 Entrepreneurial
 Flexible
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Minimising
 Setting up of Goals
 Delegate Cautiously
 Motivation
 Coordination
 Calculated risk taking
 Decision making
 Set higher challenging goals
 seek for its followers
 Seeks excitement
Specific The managers specifically focuses
towards the management of operations
as well as the people in the business.
The leaders specifically looks
towards the leading of people to
enhance their working.
Features  Employers drives employees,
with the help of their authority
and fear of their powers.
 Management mostly is self
centred and and places blames
for the breakdowns.
 The managers take credits for
their subordinates' works and
makes command over their
subordinates.
 Leaders are the coaches, who
generates enthusiasm with
their abilities.
 Leaders are mainly team
oriented and works along
them and takes responsibility.
 The leaders gives credit to
their teams for achieving any
goal and does not forces them
to do something.
A self-reflective approach to leadership of individual experiences on this course and elsewhere
In the academics, leadership is defined and explained in many ways about what it is with
regards to different viewpoints. In comparison to my real life experiences the world is very
complicated and many formats, approaches and concepts does not comply with certain given
situations. I realised this when I entered into professional practice, where prescribed theories
does not meet with the requirements in real practices. The academic and storytelling throughout
the course was for the delivery of course material and the way in which we learnt. The presenters
on the course told their own stories, which captured the essence of their leadership, and through
their own story, along-with it they shared their thoughts, experiences, feelings and emotions. I
had understood that storytelling enables the whole organisation to learn and promote leadership
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development within a others in an organisation. I had been through a three months intensive
course, on the prospectives of leadership, innovative ideas, perspectives and concepts. The most
better concepts of leadership were transformational, democratic, ethics based and authentic that I
experienced during my class. Throughout the three week intensive course, it was clear that
leaders who focuses on the areas of being effective leadership will be able to bring about real
change and be respective, creative and effective leader in an organisation. When we see the
pressures upon management to reach unquenchable and sometimes unquestioned pursuit for the
business profits the development and reinforcement of ethical leadership is compromised. There
are problems in a business related to the decisions for short term, due to fast moving, pervasive
and continuously changing world that causes errors in decisions. New leadership needs to
embrace authentic and reliable practices such that are exposed and followed by the team mates.
The course duration and management practice that taught me about being a good leader in the
best way possible is as comparatively their styles that are needed to be changed according to the
changing situations. The businesses are dynamic and with those dynamic situations the
leadership styles must be also adapted and enhanced to tackle those situations. The practices of
leadership are highly influential in every business and required to be performed by every
manager as per their choices. I would explain that the transformational or situational leadership is
best in order to adapt the changes and have best experiences in their business.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it had been identified that there are various practices and skills that
an individual requires to be a successful leader. The report had been explaining various theories
and practices such as Big Five Personality Traits that are possessed by individual to be a good
leader. The report had been explaining other approaches such as situational approach, servant
leadership, transformational and Three Skills Approach of Katz. Moreover, the report had been
showing theories, approaches and traits that could be used to develop leadership. Further the
report covers differences between the leadership and management and how these are apart from
each other. At the end the report covers an analysis of learnings and experiences of leadership
skills and talents by an individual.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Thani, F. B. H. and Obeidat, A. M., 2020. The impact of strategic leadership on crisis
management. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 10(6), pp.307-326.
Bryant, D. and Walker, A., 2021. Whole-school designs that develop middle leadership
capacity. Australian Educational Leader, 43(2). pp.24-28.
Burns, D. J. and Mooney, D., 2018. Transcollegial leadership: a new paradigm for leadership.
International Journal of Educational Management.
Creed, A. and et. al., 2021. Leadership Lessons in Sustainability from Elders and Events in
Historical Clan Survival Stories. In Clan and Tribal Perspectives on Social, Economic
and Environmental Sustainability. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Griffith, J., 2020. Leadership Tips for Department Chairs: From Theory to (Best) Practice.
Hariri and et.al., 2016. Teacher-perceived principal leadership styles, decision-making styles and
job satisfaction: how congruent are data from Indonesia with the Anglophile and Western
literature?. School Leadership & Management, 36(1), pp.41-62.
Hejazi, A. and Nazarpoori, A., 2020. Investigating the effect of emotional intelligence
dimensions on intelligent leadership in knowledge age organizations. Journal of New
Approaches in Educational Administration, 11(45). pp.249-268.
Höddinghaus, M. and Hertel, G., 2021. Trust and leadership: Implications of digitization.
In Trust and communication (pp. 185-203). Springer, Cham.
Krapfl, J. E. and Kruja, B., 2015. Leadership and culture. Journal of Organizational Behavior
Management, 35(1-2), pp.28-43.
Kuşakçı, S. and Busatlic, S., 2021. A value-based leadership model grounded in
history. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 16(1). pp.16-38.
Lee, C., 2021. Promoting diversity in university leadership: the argument for LGBTQ+ specific
leadership programmes in higher education. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher
Education. pp.1-9.
Moral and et.al., 2018. Successful secondary school principalship in disadvantaged contexts from
a leadership for learning perspective. School Leadership & Management, 38(1), pp.32-5
Paletta, A., Bezzina, C. and Alimehmeti, G., 2020. Leadership Practices and Managerial
Accountability in Italy. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Samad and et.al., 2015. An empirical study on the effect of leadership styles on employee
wellbeing and organizational outcomes within an Australian regional university. In
Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Business and Social Sciences 2015, 13-14
April, University of Central Queensland, Sydney, Australia (pp. 984-999).
Wakabi, B. M., 2016. Leadership style and staff retention in organizations. International Journal
of Science and Research, 5(1), pp.412-416.
Wilson and et.al., 2017. Revitalising leadership: Putting theory and practice into context.
Routledge.
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