A Brief Review of the Relationship Between Leadership and Management

Although some people tend to equate leadership and management, they are not the same thing. Leadership involves inspiring people to achieve a common goal. Management is the implementation and administration of the process to achieve the common goal. While the two are closely related, leadership is one of many managerial functions, and organizational performance is a result of the quality of leadership among managers in that organization. Managers at all hierarchical levels have a leadership role to play. The manager’s responsibility as a leader typically includes motivating team members to do effective and efficient work. This implies that leadership is a social talent, to obtain the best effort of the members of the organization. Through leadership, a manager secures the cooperation of others to achieve a goal. An inept or dysfunctional leader can deteriorate the morale and efficiency of an organization. On the contrary, strong leadership can transform a mediocre group into a viable, aggressive and successful organization.

Managers have a leadership role because they can influence the behavior of members of the formal work group. This does not mean that managers are always effective in the leadership role. A manager’s leadership can be measured by the group’s contribution toward the organization’s goals. For example, the leadership of a software engineering manager can be measured by how quickly a product goes from concept to market; a process commonly referred to as “time to market”. Other such measures include higher profit margins and customer satisfaction.

Generally, there are two types of leaders in organizations: formal and informal. Formal leadership is exercised by people appointed or elected to positions of formal authority in organizations. Authority, which exists in the formal organization, is the right to issue directives and spend resources. A first-level manager is an example of a person who is appointed to a formal leadership position. The first-level manager influences others in the formal work group simply because of the nature of her position.

Informal leadership is exercised by people who emerge as influential over others due to special skills or resources they possess to meet the needs of a work unit or its members. In other words, the informal leader of a group is the one the group considers most capable of satisfying its needs. The informal leader’s authority may be removed, reduced, or increased, depending on the group’s perceived progress toward its goals. The informal leader’s authority may be threatened by the emergence of different or additional goals.

It is important to note that managers (formal leaders) may or may not be informal leaders. The role of a manager and the role of an informal leader are different. In an informal leadership situation, the leader must know the needs of the group and must be seen by the group as the person best able to meet those needs. The source of authority for the leader is the group she leads. In most organizations, a manager’s (formal leader) source of authority does not come from the group she leads; comes from top management. This implies that the source of authority for a manager comes from vertical rather than horizontal organizational means.

In conclusion, it is important to differentiate between leadership and management. The two are not identical. Leaders lead people and managers manage situations. Managers must realize that leadership is a function of management and that the title of “Manager” does not mean that he or she is a leader by default.