Management and Leadership - the Difference Between Managing and Leading

Management and Leadership

Effective managers are not necessarily true leaders and effective leaders may not necessarily be in the role of management. However, both management and leadership are important to an organization in order to achieve its goals. In this paper I will show the difference between management and leadership, examine the role and responsibilities of leaders in creating and maintaining a healthy organizational culture, and make two recommendations that will help to create and maintain a healthy organizational culture.

The Difference Between Managing and Leading

There is a significant difference between managing and leading. The verb manage means to handle or direct with a degree of skill, to make and keep compliant, or to exercise executive, administrative, and supervisory direction of whereas the verb lead means to guide on a way especially by going in advance, to direct on a course or in a direction, or to serve as a channel for (Merriam-Webster's OnLine Dictionary, 2005). Management is getting people to do something because they have to do it and leadership is getting people to do something because they want to do it. Bolton (2005) sums up the differences between management and leadership. Management involves planning and budgeting, organizing and staffing, and controlling and problem-solving. However, leadership involves establishing direction, aligning people, and motivating and inspiring.

The importance of leading is enormous but that does not mean managing is not important. Management and leadership are both vital to an organization. "To highlight the need for more leadership is not to minimize the importance of management or managers. It is to say that leadership involves unique processes that are distinguishable from basic management processes" (Bateman & Snell, 2004). It is also important to point out that even though managing and leading involve different processes, it is not necessarily different people who perform these processes. One person can perform both, one, or none of these processes. Though the most successful person is one who can perform both managerial and leadership processes efficiently.

A leader's job is to make the vision of the company clear to others and influence them to follow that vision. Management: The competitive landscape (6th ed.), provides some good examples to understanding leadership and communicating the vision of an organization. The first example is a puzzle; one looks at the picture on the outside of the box in order to put it together because it provides direction, a clear picture of the outcome. The other example is a slide projector, in order to see the presentation; the projector must be in focus. If the presentation were blurry, people would not be able to follow it. A clear vision is essential to effective leading and having people follow. "Great leaders keep people focused on moving the organization toward its ideal future, motivating them to overcome whatever obstacles lie in the way" (Bateman & Snell, 2004).

Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Organizational Culture

Culture is a belief or value system of a group or person. "When we refer to a company culture we are looking at the ways people are motivated or are inspired to motivate themselves because they want to be part of the team" (Phelps, 2003). Organizational cultures deeply influence the direction of a company. A healthy organizational culture consists of strong core values, integrity, open communication, and accountability.

It is the responsibility of the leaders of a company to create and maintain a healthy organizational culture. The best way to do this is to lead by example. If the managers and leaders of an organization are ethical, have integrity, and conduct themselves in a positive way, the employees are bound to follow in their footsteps. Strong values at the core of the organization will flow down to the rest of the employees.

Organizational culture takes direction from leaders and the established vision, mission, and values, of the organization. Culture is the healthiest when the employees believe their contribution to the company, the customers, and their personal missions are united. Therefore, the vision, mission, values, and goals of the company must be clear, concise, and take the future of the company into account.

To maintain a healthy organizational culture it is also important to have open communication between and accountability for the actions of all employees. Issues should be discussed openly and the chosen solutions to problems should be in the best interest for everyone involved. Leaders should support employees by giving them the ability to define how to do their jobs and to get results that will make them as well as the company