Understanding of the Relationship Between Management & Leadership - SME & Toyota

LO1

P1 Define and compare different roles and characteristics of leader and manager

Definition of leader and manager

A leader is a person who inspires, motivates as well as influences the employees so that they work willingly for the overall attainment of organizational goals and objectives (McLean and Antony, 2014). Manager on the other hand is the one who has the responsibility to control or administer the organization by carrying out activities such as planning, directing, and coordinating among others (Konstantin, 2012).

Characteristics of leader and manager

Research studies suggest that most of the people have a presence of certain traits and characteristics from early childhood or birth that make them a leader or manager. Both of them possess diverse characteristics that are as follows. On one hand the leader has an ability to inspire his colleagues; showcases confidence and positive attitude; has a presence of good communication skill; is open minded and follow an enthusiastic approach towards work (Muratbekova-Touron and Galindo, 2018). On the other hand, a manager is quite disciplined and committed to work; is full of patience and follows proper etiquettes in the work place so as to ensure towards effective decision making. But just like the leader he is also confident about his work responsibilities that have been bestowed on him.

Roles of leader and manager

A leader influences his team members to attain a specific set of goals while a manager manages the entire working of an organization. The leader has the quality of foresightedness while manager work with intelligence. A leader is there to set directions while manager focuses on planning details. A manager believes in taking decision while a leader facilities in effective decision making to be done on part of the team members. A leader thus has a set of followers while manager is there to manage employees. A manager often works to avoid conlficiting situation within firm but leader uses conflict as an asset and works on the loopholes that have caused the scenario. A manager often relies on the usage of transactional leadership style on its employees while leaders make use of transformational leadership styleas well as others as per the demand of situation (Timans and et.al., 2016). A leader often tries to promote change on the other hand manager reacts to the changes taking place within the organization. A leader believes in aligning the people while manager organized people. The focus of leader is mostly on people while manager lays increased emphasis on process and procedure. Leader often minimizes the risks on the other hand manager believes in taking risks. A leader usually aims at overall growth and development of his team members while manager strives for accomplishing the end results (Parahoo and Mahate, 2016). Overall it can be said that the role of leader is usually positive where he gives focus on working on the inner talent of followers and provides them a proper direction to attain the goals. On the other hand, the role of manager has a negative side where he focuses on criticising the employees so that they give their best but he never demoralizes them (Reid and et.al., 2017).

As per the above analysis it has been concluded that the new SME is in need of both the leader and manager to attain success. They both can help the firm in attaining a long run survival and develop an ability to compete with the competitors. If a balance is maintained between leader and manager then the issue of bad management can be reduced to a great extent that is usually responsible for the failure of firms in a short while of time. As the company under study is small one hence the challenge lies in making sure that a single person is able to leas as well as manage team at the same time. If the firm has a presence of such an employee then it is most likely to create a competitive advantage over others.

You may also read: A structured busniess plan for a real estate agency in malta

LO2

P2 Examine examples of how role of leader and function of manager apply in different situations

There is a set of functions that are to be performed by both the leader and manager in a firm. However the role played by them may get different as per situation which has been discussed in below mentioned sections.

• Planning - The role of manager with new SME firm is to plan and set goals for the company so that operational activity can be managed. The leader in this regard is responsible for communicating the roles set by managers to the employees and ensure that they work hard towards attainment of these goals. For example, the goal set by manager can be increasing revenue of the company hence leaders here can guide the employees by setting time lines and distributing the work as per positive area of every employee. Proper planning is a must for SME firm as it creates a base for rest of the functions to be performed by the management.
• Organizing - the work of manager in this situation is to organize the resources available with the new SME so that organizational goals can be fulfilled. The resources here are inclusive of finances, equipment’s, workforce; office space among others (Pitt and Koufopoulos, 2012). Leaders in this respect play the role of ensuring that employees are organized in their work areas and resources are provided to them so that they can give best results to the company. For example, in order to carry out advertising activity within the new SME the manager will organize finance, human resource team and equipment needed for it (laptops, software’s etc.). The leader on the other hand will organize the employees into an advertising team and provide them the needed finance and equipment’s to accomplish the work.
• Directing -The management of the new SME is there to direct the employees as to how the task is to be performed by them while leader works on the details by creating team so that work can be accomplished as per planning (Boer and et.al., 2017).
• Staffing - This is one of the most crucial function in the new SME that is required to be performed both by the manager and leader. The manager works on the recruitment task and assigns job to employees as per skills and capabilities (Consiglio and et.al., 2013). The leader on the other hand will focus on motivating the employees and allocating them work as per their abilities. A two way communication will also be maintained by the leader and grievances will also be solved followed by carrying out overall performance evaluation.
  • Controlling:the strategies that have been made by managers as well as those that are implemented by the leaders in the new SME are required to be monitored by the management of the company. The work of leader here is to verify the overall outcome of performance rendered by employees with respect to the standards that has been laid by managers. The leaders further have a role to guide the employees accordingly (Tannenbaum and Cerasoli, 2013).

P3 Apply different theories and models of approach including situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency

Situational leadership theory

As the company is a new one hence there is a need to form a strong employee base which can only be done if leadership is up to the mark. Hence there can be an application of various theories and models of approach so that employees can be led in best possible manner. One such is situational theory wherein the leader is required to modify the leadership style so as to fit the followers which are to be influenced within the company (Muratbekova-Touron and Galindo, 2018). For example, as the company is a new one and has a set of very less employees in terms of number hence there will be increased work responsibilities on the members in case some of them go on a leave. Telling and directing style of leadership can thus be applied by the leader in these situations. This will involve for close supervision by the management and adoption of top-down approach of communication. The strategy is most likely to ensure towards fast flow of work and creation of least possible mistakes by the employees. Selling and coaching style can however be adopted with new employees who are not aware about the office culture as well as work responsibilities. This will help them attain a comfort level due to involvement of leader in there day to day activities.

System leadership theory

There can further be an application of system leadership theory by the management team at the new SME firm. This will be all about creating conditions for the leaders where the employees at all levels can work in a productive manner up to their maximum potential. In this regard, the management at new SME can make use of sound principles related to human behavior such as motivation, team work, apprecitation etc. to predict the behavior of employee at work (Cleveland, Byrne and Cavanagh, 2015). This will aid in building up of efficient work systems that will drive the overall productive behavior and led to attainment of organizational purpose.

Contingency model of leadership

The company can further apply contingency model of leadership which is based on a simple principle that there is no one best style of leadership and the effectiveness of the leader is based on situation. Here is an application of this leadership style for the company. The very first step to be undertaken by the leader is to identify his or her leadership style (autocratic, democratic, transformational etc). The next step is to identify the situation as to if there is a presence of good relation between leader member or not; is the task to be accomplished a structured one or not and does the leader have a weak or strong control over the team (Timans and et.al., 2016). The leader can then select the best leadership style. For instance, if the team members have no trust on the leader and structured work is being done within organization then leader should focus on building relationships at the first place. In the same way, if the leader has a team that likes and respects him and the work requires high degree of creativity such as in advertising department then task-focused style can be the most efficient.

UPTO56%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit