Difference between a Leader and a Manager - Coursework Example

Difference between a leader and a manager of Introduction Human resource management is one of the core elements in every organization because of its role in identifying and managing talents for the future of the organization. Every big organization has a well defined HR policy and has a brilliant HR team to implement such policies. “Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, eg, career development, training, organization development, etc.”1 Human resource Management (HRM) is the management activity of the employees of an organization where as the Human Resource Development (HRD) is a more general term in which apart from the management function the developments of the organization and the employees (internal and external) through different types of training activities are also the functions of an HRD department. The globalized current business environment has made the task complicated for the HR department. Most of the companies are now establishing their manufacturing units in overseas countries in order to exploit the overseas markets. Some employees need to be sent to the overseas countries in order to set up the business there. The HR managers need to train such employees in accordance with the needs of the target country. The difference in culture, language, environment all must be addressed by the HR managers while formulating the training procedures. This paper is explaining briefly about the management of labour force by a leader and a manager by considering an international company Microsoft. Microsoft is believed to be one of the biggest software companies in the world. In fact it controls the majority of the world’s software market with their monopoly. Even other companies like Intel were forced to make microprocessor chips suitable for the Microsoft’s Windows operating system because of their monopoly. Microsoft did this by creating a series of operating systems (DOS, then Windows), and by defining the kind of machine that could run their OSs.” (Why is Microsoft a Monopoly?) Microsoft is lead by its founder Bill Gates. It is actually the great leader ship Bill Gates, shaped Microsoft into such a big monopolistic firm in the world. “Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow, ie: a leader is the spearhead for that new direction. Management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established.”2 The leader always concentrated on setting the vision and the mission of the company. Bill Gates never interferes with the management functions of the company. In fact he was concentrated more on developing the strategies for the growth of the company. He has formulated the vision and the strategies that others need to follow in Microsoft. The managers in Microsoft have concentrated only on the implementation part of the strategies formulated by Bill Gates. The task of managers in Microsoft was easy since they have to concentrate only on the implementation part rather than the formulation part of the strategy. Microsoft managers were just like a referee in a foot ball match in which the referee needs to implement the rules formulated by FIFA rather than developing new rules for the match. In some organizations the managers may be forced to develop strategies as well, if the proper leadership is unavailable. In such organizations the manager’s role will be difficult since he has to concentrate on two aspects of organization; devising the strategy and implementing it. In a good organization the leadership and the management will be two different entities. The success of the organization lies in the combined effort of managers and the leaders. When a leader acts as a figure-head without setting any direction, technically this is not leadership. However, the figure head may be viewed as a leader. For example, in the UK, the monarch is often viewed as a leader, but actually provides very little leadership (most of the leadership in the UK comes from political figures).Leadership is about setting a new direction for a group; management is about directing and controlling according to established principles. However, someone can be a symbolic leader if they emerge as the spearhead of a direction the group sets for itself.3 In UK, still the monarch is considered as the leaders. But in the definition of leadership is not going in hand with the functioning of the monarch. All the administrative matters will be formulated and implemented by the political administration and hence the monarch cannot be considered as an active leader. We can consider them as passive leaders because of their less involvement in administrative matters or the functioning of the government. Even in India like democratic countries, the role of president is also similar to that of passive leadership. The prime minister and his cabinet is responsible for the administrative matters and the president needs only to sign the papers in order to make it as a rule in India. Leadership is just one of the many qualities a brilliant manager must possess. Though leadership is as essential part of management qualities, the main purpose of the manager is to manage the resources (Man, Material, Machine and Money) judiciously to ensure maximum productivity. To achieve the above mentioned objectives the manager must possess good skills like organizing, planning, staffing, directing and controlling. 4 Based on the department in which the manager is working the required skills can be varied. For example for a production manager, the man, material and machine management is important where as for an accounts manager the management of money is important. “A leader must lead by example whereas a manager uses direction and enforcement of policy and procedure to accomplish specific tasks. A Manager "does the thing right" and a Leader "does the right thing."5 The primary aim of the leader is to set examples to his followers where as the aim of the manager is to get the work done through his subordinates. The leader always will have followers whereas the manager has always subordinates rather than followers. The basic difference between a leader and the manager is summarised in the following table. Subject Leader Manager Essence Change Stability Focus Leading people Managing work Have Followers Subordinates Horizon Long-term Short-term Seeks Vision Objectives Approach Sets direction  Plans detail Decision Facilitates Makes Power Personal charisma Formal authority Appeal to Heart Head Energy Passion Control Dynamic Proactive Reactive Persuasion Sell Tell Style Transformational Transactional Exchange Excitement for work Money for work Likes Striving Action Wants Achievement Results Risk Takes Minimizes Rules Breaks Makes Conflict Uses Avoids Direction New roads Existing roads Truth Seeks Establishes Concern What is right Being right Credit Gives Takes Blame Takes Blames (Leadership vs. Management6) “Leaders do the right things. Their main focus is to lead people with passion. They direct people in to new roads. Managers do things right. They direct people in to existing roads”7 Most of the times the leaders adopt the right strategy. In Microsoft’s example, so far nobody has criticized Bill Gates for his business strategies as far as profit is concerned. Of course, there were criticisms against Microsoft for monopolising the software market. But some people believe that Microsoft has not done anything deliberately to achieve monopoly, but their monopoly occurred naturally because of their product quality. The manager has to follow the instructions from the leader irrespective of whether it is right or wrong. Same way the subordinates need to follow the instructions from the manager irrespective of rights or wrongs. “Manager is always right” is the principle followed in most of the organizations. Manager has the access to more information than the employees and hence his decisions should not be questioned by subordinates. One way or other the functioning of a manager is just like military brigadier. Managers are directing people in the existing road. They don’t want to think about the target if the leader has already devised the strategies for reaching the target. Another difference between leadership and management is the persons outlook on the organization. Leaders take a "birds eye view" or "50,000 foot" view of the organization and its situations. From this vantage point, a leader can look at the big picture - how is the organization functioning, what processes are linked to what areas, and what changes will make things more efficient and cost effective. A manager, although in tune with the big picture, must continue to look at the micro picture, whats going on right in his or her area. This is not a short sighted view, but a view that can manage the nuts and bolts of the smaller unit.8. The leader has a wide range of view compared to the manger and hence he can anticipate more things than the manager. Moreover the leader usually concentrates only on the strategic formulation of the organization and hence he will get more time to analyze the problems and formulating solutions. For example, the Indian business tycoon Tata has been criticized as a mad person when he announced the project for making the world’s cheapest car “Nano” worth of $ 2000 only. Most people believed that this idea never going to materialize. But recently Tata has launched his dream car and as per the recent reports from Indian car market, almost a million cars were already booked and Tata is looking for overseas markets as well. The above example clearly shows the vision of a leader. Tata has studied the market very well and he found that the Indian society with average income cannot afford a car of higher prices. Moreover he realized that, two wheeler bikes worth around Rupees 75000 are more prominent Indian market and hence a car worth Rupees 100000 may move even better. The vision of Tata has been proved right as per the current trends in car markets in India. Conclusions Human resource management (HRM) is a specific category where as human resource development (HRD) is a general category. HRD needs to concentrate on all the aspects of the development of man power where as the HRM concentrates only on the management areas of the employees. Microsoft is one of the best examples to learn more about the difference between a manger and a leader. Bill Gates formulates the strategy for Microsoft which has been implemented by the managers. Leader and manager have entirely different functions. Leader can be a manager and a manager can be a leader as well. But because of the complexity of the responsibilities, it is better to separate the roles of a manager and the leader. Leader can concentrate on the formulation of strategies for the growth of the organization whereas the manager can concentrate on the implementation of whatever the policies formulated by the leader. A leader has always followers whereas the manager has subordinates. The leader has the widest view about the organization and its growth prospects compared to the manager and the subordinates. The leader always set examples for the followers where as the managers need not be like that. Notes 1. McNamara Carter, MBA, PhD, 2009, Human Resources Management, Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 2. Leadership and Management, 1995, Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 3. The Difference Between Management And Leadership, Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 4. Dr. Johnson Rick, 2009, The Difference Between a Leader and a Manager, Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 5. Leadership vs. Management, Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 6. What is the difference between Leader & Manager?, Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 7. Nielson Bryant, 2009  Difference Between Leadership and Management? Retrieved on May 10 2009 from 8. Why is Microsoft a Monopoly?, Retrieved on May 10, 2009 from Read More