Management and Leadership
Management and Leadership
The distinction between management and leadership it is very important. There are many differences between management and leadership. Basically, the difference is really the ultimate goal of the two processes. Management is more about stability, efficiency and homeostasis within the organization. For leadership all of these objectives are secondary, sometimes even eliminated. True leaders are essential in times of social and / or economic change. Leaders have the talent and courage to go ahead others and guide them to achieve targets.
One of the biggest problems that the humanity has at this moment is the very small number of true leaders. It doesn’t matter if it is about his family, or business, or the community we live, country or planet – all these levels requires effective and true leaders.
At the same time the concept of “leadership” is fairly controversial and misunderstood by most of us. Many believe that leadership skills are innate; others strongly believe that they can be acquired and developed throughout life. So it is something innate, a special talent or it can be educated?
At the surface, a leader has certain characteristics, traits. In most cases it is hard to develop our selves as leaders, just by knowing what leaders’ behaviors and attitudes are. The behaviors, skills and attitude of a leader are composed of a wide range of items to be studied in detail.
What is seen outside (behavior, attitude) is only a “map: of our own perception about what is a leader.” The territory” is often totally different from what we perceive as our map. Leaders may be recognized for their vision, ability to move people and whole communities to a goal set for them.
Wilson Learning brings together two leading practices, leadership and management, choosing the “integrated leadership and management” model.
Leadership:
– encourages people to grow and to highlight their potential;
– help people make connections between their responsibilities inside the company and the general goal, contributing to whose through their work;
– inspire people to see opportunities and possibilities that come along with the change.
But management creates the environment for performance:
– establishes procedures and systems to facilitate the work;
– provides specific rules for achieving the objectives;
– allocate resources taking into account the efficiency of costs.
Now imagine a pendulum oscillating between the two columns of the table above. Let the pendulum to stop on the management and think the effects it would have on the organization using strict management practices. Then imagine the pendulum staying at the leadership column. If we let the pendulum to oscillate between management and leadership, then we will have the image of an organization with an integrated approach of leadership and management practices. What would be the consequences of this approach for organization? Focusing solely on leadership, only on management or leadership, or just on integrated management we can change the life of an organization. The practice of leadership and integrated management is essential for companies that are at the end the second stage of growth
Anyway the role of leadership and management are two of the most important things in an organization, it depends on their actions and activity inside and / or out the organization what we get in the end – success or failure. In other words it is after them to make the right choice. The essential part of their activity is in the decision making process. For better understanding the role of managers and leaders, or how their decision influence company development and growth, let’s take for instance the all known General Motors Company.
General Motors “is U.S. automaker with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. GM is the world’s 18th largest corporate entity and third largest automaker as ranked by 2008 revenues on the Fortune Global 500.” (Strott, Elizabeth 2009.01.21). “In 2009, General Motors employs approximately 244,500 people around the world”.( Media.gm.com. 2009.01.21) “In the late 1990s, the U.S. economy was on the rise and GM and Ford gained market share producing enormous profits primarily from the sale of light trucks and sport-utility vehicles” (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2009). But in our days so many industries are changing, and because of the economy General Motors is seeing its company go through drastic changes. For 76 years management and leadership are at their best, today management has to be able to put in measures that may not be beneficial to the employees but beneficial to the company. “Since 1992, GM’s U.S. market share has fallen steadily–from 34% that year to 19% in May. Many of GM’s leading executives are from the finance side of the business, but the financial failures are numerous. The issue is not whether there can be a rescue at General Motors; the issue is whether the current management can save it.” (Jerry Flint 06.24.08)
The true is that at that moment General Motors needed not simple a good management, but they really needed managers with some features of leaders. They needed managers to jump out of the box, to be original and to focus on both short term, and on the longer term.
In these challenging times with forecasts of massive layoffs, it becomes a survival of the fittest: only the best managers and leaders will survive: they will remain employed. The bad & weak managers and leaders and the empty suits in particular will fail and the organization will fail with them!
The role of managers and leaders in the organizational culture and strategies to maintain it healthy
All organizations regardless of ownership and performance targets are created and live in a certain environment, which bears the name – culture. It largely determines the meaning of their existence, acts, both outside and inside the organization.
Organizational culture – is a complex phenomenon, not always lying on the surface, and it is difficult to «feel» it. If you can say that organization has a soul, then this soul is the organizational culture.
Culture gives meaning to many of our actions. Therefore, to change anything in people’s lives can only with caution on this significant event. Culture is formed over the years and decades, so it is inert and conservative. And many innovations do not take root only because they contradict the people mastered the cultural norms and values.
Many tutorials will argue that well-developed culture is the most important characteristic of organizations with considerable success. The term “healthy culture” indicates that the majority of managers and employees practice a set of common values and methods of doing business. A healthy culture can be associated with a strong performance for three reasons. First, a healthy culture implies a stable relationship between culture and strategy. Second, a healthy culture may lead to a unity of purpose among staff. Third, a healthy culture leads to high motivation of staff and their greater participation in the organization.
Organization culture can both help, creating an environment conducive to improving productivity and introducing new and to work against the organization, creating barriers to the development and implementation of corporate strategy. These barriers include resistance to the new and ineffective communication.
What draws the attention to managers and leaders, and what they comment is very important for the formation of organizational culture. Systematic treatment of attention to something is a strong signal to subordinates about what is important and what is expected of them. For example, in one of the firms were identified, a new method of managing more successfully implemented in that part of the company, whose leader was optimistic about this method. Another part of the company’s head manager, considered this method a new bureaucratic game. Naturally, his subordinates quickly mastered the formal part of the method, but ignored it on the merits.
In a situation of financial constraints, the leadership can select two ways: reduction of staff or reduction of hours while maintaining the staff composition. The second option is preferable in terms of organizational culture that cherishes its employees. Something similar happened at the company Hewlett-Packard, where the leadership has chosen any layoffs, but the whole team “to tight their belts”. Until now, the event is retained by the whole staff and in difficult times is discussed in the folklore of the firm.
Organizational culture focused on customers, it can be demonstrated in the process of training new staff, with demonstrations of educational films and in the daily practice of communication of management with clients. It is important a positive correlation between education and practice. The contradictions between them may lead to the formation of a staff of double standards and morals.
Rewards can be earned or not. Demonstration of the honored employee benefits and may be crucial for the formation of employee behavior. Some authors believe that the system of rewards and punishments is the most important in shaping the organizational culture.
Leaders and managers have to know the criteria values of employees’, because it can affects the selection of personnel, as well as the organization often get new staff members corresponding to the relevant criteria. In addition, often happens that employees leave the organization because they deviate from those adopted in the organization cultural patterns.
T. Peters and R. Waterman, investigating the relationship between culture and the success of organization, made a number of values and beliefs of organizational culture, which ensured the success of companies:
– Dedication;
– Focus on the action;
– Face-to-consumer;
– Autonomy and entrepreneurship;
– Relation between life and leadership values;
– Performance Rights;
– Freedom in action and toughness simultaneously
– Simple form, the modest state control.
Ones again, organizational culture is possibly the most critical factor “determining an organization’s capacity, effectiveness, and longevity. It also contributes significantly to the organization’s brand image and brand promise. Organizational Culture creates energy and momentum. The energy will permeate the organization and create a new momentum for success.” (Linda Devis, 01.04.2007)
In 1994, Ronald W. Clement wrote an article, that we find in Business Horizons, about the “Culture, leadership, and power: the keys to organizational change”, related to three big companies: “General Motors, IBM, and Sears: three companies facing a need for dramatic change that have already tried, but failed, at major change efforts.” He talks about the importance of organizational culture and the need of changes in their organizations. “The most important idea of all for companies like GM, IBM, and Sears is that those pushing for organizational improvement–whether they are external members of the board, major investors, or top executives–must deal with cultural and behavioral obstacles to change.” He also says that there are three features that must be taken in consideration when attempt to make an organizational change: “the firm’s culture, the leadership of the change effort, and the existing network of power.”
What is trying to communicate through these examples is that organizational structure it is a real responsibility for both managers and leaders. And it isn’t just another issue for them to solve in organization, but is one of the most important things that leaders should regulate and to maintain.
Management and globalization
Globalization is a social process which erases geographical boundaries of social and cultural systems, the process of transforming the world into a coherent whole. The essence of globalization is to open borders to trade and financial flows. Proponents of globalization see its main advantage in strengthening the fruitful competition that is not limited by protectionist framework in the global division of labor.
The development of globalization and consolidation of transnational corporations leads to changes in the methods, techniques and methods of management, the transition from classical management to the concept of system management. It is the economy that has become the main cause and a tool of globalization. Globalization of economy is necessary and important. However, top managers, it brings not only benefits but also problems. Increasing international standardization, and the number of items that must be considered in the issuance and sale of products or services; foreign goods are tough competition, both in price and quality. There is a growing migration and they employ workers not always from other countries, but still from other cities and regions. Regional differences by themselves can form the basis of misunderstanding and conflict, not only among employees but also between staff and customers. Another problem is the orientation problem in the alien cultural environment and the need for building a system of governance with a growing multicultural society. That’s what determined the appearance of such a section control as Intercultural Management.
In large corporations, management functions systematically, divided between units and often geographically dispersed. The role of the middle and lower-level control is reduced only to the interim control by senior management, compliance with established plans. The essence of management function has changed considerably. For example, the function of motivation has become a kind of moral and psychological pressure on employees. Often hidden is the substitution of the personal interests of corporate employees. However, in most cases, personal interests do not coincide, but sometimes even are opposed to corporate interests. The function of control in large enterprises is divided by levels and units; however, the real control is exercised not by managers, but by the so-called “corporate principles” – the established pattern of work, relationships, behavior. That is, workers are subject to certain established principles, rather than the influence of managers. Real control in a globalized organization does not possess even the top management, because even they can not change the existing traditional goals and principles of the organization. The only advantage of senior management is the unrestricted access to internal information and the ability to monitor the entire business process.
Only the further development of management as the science will open in the future, new and better principles, methods and ways of managing society and global associations.
References
Basic Skills in Management and Leadership, Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC, Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision, (1997-2008), from http://managementhelp.org/fp_progs/mng_mod/mng_ldr.htm
Organizational Culture, Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD. Published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC, (2000), Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision, from http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm
Globalization and Change Management, Alecxandrina Deaconu (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest), (2007), from http://ideas.repec.org/a/eph/journl/v2y2007i2n8.html
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