Essay Example on Leadership vs Management: Identifying the Differences

Question 1

Several differences can be identified between a leader and a manager. Although the two are hard to differentiate because of their duties of heading an organization and overseeing the activities of the employees, the two are not the same. To begin with, leaders are known to be risk-takers while managers are skilled in avoiding and controlling risks (Arruda, 2016). The managers would not want an organization to take any chances whose results are not known. Contrary, leaders try new things to increase profitability no matter the risks involved.

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Secondly, managers copy strategies working elsewhere while leaders develop unique strategies (Arruda, 2016). In this, the managers use skills taught in school and others used by other successful managers. However, leaders improvise strategies based on situations and the nature of the organization. Thirdly, leaders have long term goals and visions while managers only have some short-term goals (Arruda, 2016). The difference makes a leader have a successful organization for years but the manager would only be successful for a short period.

Therefore, it is important to discuss the difference between the managers and leaders since it offers an understanding of the appropriate person to head an organization. Through this, it is clear that a leader performs better than a manager.

Question 2: Feminine versus Masculine Leadership

I agree with the view of Kabacoff (1998) who argued that although both men and women may seem to be equal in carrying out leadership roles in an organization, the two have varying characteristics. Women have a high focus on the people, positive results and production. Women are empathetic and thus are concerned about the issues that are affecting the performance of different people in the company. Also, they are highly communicative and this enables them to have a lot of interaction with other people in an organization. Furthermore, they facilitate high production in an organization since they always motivate employees to work harder towards meeting the goals and objectives of a company (Radu, Deaconu & Frasineanu, 2017). Production is also enhanced by delegating, innovative and cooperative characteristics among the women.

On the other hand, I support the idea that men are good at business tasks, the creation of organizational vision and strategic planning. Men are most task-oriented and once they set their minds towards a certain task, they are likely to change their prior plan. They will stick to the plan until the tasks involved are accomplished. These characteristics make men be -very good in strategic planning and long-term vision creation since they would stick to it despite the issues that may arise (Radu, Deaconu & Frasineanu, 2017). Furthermore, men are aggressive and thus makes to meet the visions they set no matter the challenging path they may take.

Question 3: UWEAR and PALEDENIM Merger

The success of the merger between UWEAR and PALEDENIM is dependent on the leadership style that is offered. Since ALTAP Consulting has been contracted to carry out the merger and solve any problem involved, the most appropriate leadership style is transformational leadership. The styles call for the involvement of all the team members in the developments of the process that would be followed to bring the required change. The leaders work jointly with the team members in identifying the required changes (Garcia-Morales et al., 2012). Also, they create a common vision that would be understood by every team member towards implementing the required change.

Furthermore, the transformational leadership style entails the motivation of the members by the leaders and inspire them to embrace creativity and innovation in the problem-solving process. Furthermore, the transformational leadership style is the most appropriate for the merger task since it enhances the individual focus of the leader towards the employees and the areas they need help (Garcia-Morales et al., 2012). Moreover, the leader shows that he or she trusts the team members working under him or her and he or she has high expectations for them.

References

Arruda, W. (2016). 9 Differences between Being A Leader And A Manager. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2016/11/15/9-differences-between-being-a-leader-and-a-manager/#6eb91bb14609

Garcia-Morales, V. J., Jimenez-Barrionuevo, M. M., & Gutierrez-Gutierrez, L. (2012). Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation. Journal of business research, 65(7), 1040-1050.

Kabacoff, R. I. (1998). Gender differences in organizational leadership. In Proceedings, 106th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco, CA, August (pp. 14-18).

Radu, C., Deaconu, A., & Frasineanu, C. (2017). Leadership and Gender Differences-Are Men and Women Leading in the Same Way? Contemporary Leadership Challenges, 63-81.