The Distinction Between Management and Leadership, and Leaders and Managers

Introduction

Since long, the deep-rooted distinction between leadership and management, and leader and manager has fuelled a raging debate. According to the Rose, in the 1980s, the distinction was basically one of good cop (leader) versus bad cop (manager) (Rost, 1991). And the evidence of it has been given by Zaleznik (1977& 1990), which seems to be debated that leaders are different breed of people from mangers. Scholars also believe that it is obvious to distinguish and define their difference between leadership and management. Bennis and Nanus argued that managers do things right, but leader do the right thing in the 1980s (Bennis & Nanus, 1985). Furthermore, Gilmore and Krantz explore a particular maladaptive response which is constitutive of the conceptual and practical split of leaders and managers (Gilmore & Krantz, 1990). Additionally, there is unnecessary for leadership when there is no change rather than management which is used to stabilize the whole situation. Their pursuits are simply different (Barker, 2001). There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. To management means emphasizes rationality, problem solving and control, and focuses on maintaining the balance of organization operations (Zaleznik, 1977). Leadership is different from management, which is influencing, guiding in a direction, course, action, opinion. While, managers also are different from leaders, the reason is they have different motivation, personal history, as well as ways of thinking and acting (Zaleznik, 1977). 'A manger is the one who is in a role in which he or her is authorized to get work done through employed subordinates for whose work he or her is held accountable' (Jaques, 1970). But with the leaders, they shape ideas instead of responding to them. Creating new approaches to problems and imagine new areas to explore (Zaleznik, 1977). However, other researchers suspect that there is no real distinction between management and leadership. Argument and confusion frequently happened in defining those two concepts and it had enormous ambiguity to draw a specific distinction between them (Bresnen, 1995). In the following sections will discuss the whether the management and leadership, and managers and leaders have an unambiguous differentiation in details.

The difference between leadership and management

The basic comprehension of management

Darr (ND) analyzed some scholars' work and indicates the concept of management which has four major attributes:

1. It consists of interrelated social and technique function and activities.

2. Management aim to achieve company's' goal.

3. It accomplishes the goal by using human and substance resource.

4. Management doing the act above is all follow the organization's constitution.

In fact, chief managers set goals to all levels of managers and they draw up organization context to accomplish work effectively and directly, organization will be prepared by all levels of managers' cooperation to copy with all the difficulty in competition. Management aim to bring the company real benefits like products' quality and profitability consistently, and its function has fatal effects towards enterprises. If an international tycoon does not implement excellent management, it will turn to be chaos and hard to work properly. Management in terms of assessment the situation and the systematic section of goals, and purpose such as what to be done, and in order to achieve the goal management has to systematic development of strategies, collect and collating the required document and resources, the rational design, organization, direction, and control the activities which attain and selected the goal, also, give the motivation and rewarding to the employ who to do the work (Levitt. T, 1976). Sloan suggested that 'good management rests on reconciliation of centralization and decentralization or decentralization with coordinated control' (Sloan, 1964).

The basic comprehension of leadership

However, Gronn (1999) draw some conclusion from his observation and indicate leadership has two attributes which are interpersonal influence and identification according to leaders' followers' cognition.

1. interpersonal influence

Leaders' legitimate influence based on perceived personal skill, attribute or endowment which is thought capital of leaders. However, the influence not only exists in small company but only reside at complex transnational corporation.

2. Identification

The second distinguishing character is identification. There is an emotional connection or psychological process between leaders and followers, the followers regard leaders as model, consequently, psychological bonding and attachment is generated between them. Since that, leaders could become whatever followers want as their identification. If leaders obtain followers' identification, unconsciously, leader represents the one who they respect, trust and want to be the man like this.

Leadership is to fulfill what problems have to be solved when people energies direct toward goals, resources, and organization structures. And leadership has to deal with what is the best method to tend the goal in order to give the motivation to people to contribute to the organization in future. It is a practical effort to direct affairs. In recently leadership becomes more and more important because the competition in business area is also more and more intense and unstable. Many factors induce this kind of situation. For example, faster technological change, greater international competition, the deregulation of markets, overcapacity in capital intensive industries, an unstable oil cartel, raiders with junk bonds, and the changing demographics of the work force, which results that doing best is not a certain way to success; instead, change is the key to survive in competition, that means more leadership is necessarily demanded.

Distinction from functions and characteristic activities of management and leadership

Distinction from functions

Kotter have some points of view about the difference between management and leadership. He indicated that management mainly concerns about dealing with complexity, but leadership has different function in running enterprises which focus on disposing change (Kotter, 1990). And Kotter also indicate that through leadership is absolutely different from