What is management and leadership?
Leadership can be defined by being a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organisation in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent (Clark, 2010) . Leaders follow certain traits such as having characteristics of power, creativeness to present ideas for the business to take on board and having the ability to take control on decision making to have a positive effect on the organisations. ‘Leaders demonstrate passion, integrity, curiosity, and daring and also provide a guiding vision. (meudell, 1999)
Whereas a management role explains a manager as being the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary (Reh, 2012) . A managerial role must take on a structure to control the workforce and employees within it and to construct and demonstrate the processes of work to be carried out and looking after the operations of the business.
Therefore when comparing both managers and leaders roles within an organisation, there are subtle differences. Managers work to control and implement strategies within a work force and are assigned to specific areas of the business to control, whereas leaders oversee all aspects of the business and create a certain culture to follow to inspire employees and to lead from the front incorporating decision making of the company in the short and long term.
An example of a leader within an organisation
There are many different theories which can be used as an explanation of leadership within an organisation including Adair’s theory showing a contingency approach. This theory explains there are 3 overlapping areas in which to look at when holding a leadership role including task needs being undertaken, the maintenance of the team to enable its practices to be effective and the individuals needs i.e. the employees. ‘A good leader recognises that a healthy interaction between the team, the task and the individual is vital’ (Anon, 2011) . Therefore the three areas identified need to be assessed by the leader to ensure a positive working environment and quality of work is achieved with the control of a leader. An example of a leader within an organisation is a head teacher of a secondary school. The head teacher’s job role stretches across the whole school leading all employees within the hierarchy of the organisation. The head teacher must take on a positive leadership style in order to control the way in which teachers teach the classes and to ensure students follow the correct guidelines of the school and achieve a high standard of grades at the end of their education. The head teacher who worked at my secondary school, took a positive approach to students interacting with pupils to develop positive relationships and involved students opinions in some decision making of the school. This included obtaining a student voice through prefects etc. and therefore ensured students could develop positive working relations with the head teacher. Leadership roles came into action when making more prominent decisions for the school i.e. on budgets and preparing the school for Ofsted inspections. The head teacher also made the final decisions about student’s continuation in education at the school and controlling decisions at the top of the hierarchy. When linking the leadership of a head teacher to Adair’s contingency theory, there are similarities with the head teacher being aware of individual needs such as the employees i.e. the staff and teachers and being aware of student’s interests. Also focusing on task needs for example knowing that the school must achieve certain academic results and therefore decisions should be put in place to help achieve this. Finally a head teacher as a leader must be aware of team maintenance needs and this can be referred within the teaching teams of each department e.g. humanities and sport etc. Team practices would be maintained by having regular meetings with each head of department about the commencing weeks and the programme of tasks occurring. Also any issues can be raised at the meetings and sorted within the time arranged to maintain the team needs.
In conclusion, this shows head teachers can be positive and effective leaders as they take into account the different aspects of an organisation which need control and guidance in order to maintain the way in which to focus on quality of work. There are many different theories of leadership following different areas which make up a positive leader however in evaluation I believe a positive leader maintains personal traits combined with attributes which are learned through the environment to follow a leadership style which will control an organisation. Therefore these theories are helpful in looking at different concepts and ideas of leadership within HR management, however overall an effective leader will work in their environment and will continually learn different ways in which to lead and guide employees to impact positively on work outcome.
References
Anon. (2010) Concepts of leadership [online]. NW Link. Available from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html [Accessed: 21 March 2012].
Anon (2011) Leadership theories - what do they mean? [online]. management skills. Available from: http://www.practical-management-skills.com/leadership-theories.html [Accessed: 21 March 2012].
Clark, D. (2010) Concepts of leadership [online]. NW Link. Available from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html [Accessed: 21 March 2012].
meudell, K. (1999) Management and organisational behaviour - a student workbook. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pitman Publishing.
Reh, J. (2012) Manager [online]. About.com management. Available from: http://management.about.com/od/policiesandprocedures/g/manager1.htm [Accessed: 21 March 2012].
