Leadership versus management
Every organization needs hierarchy among the employees so that the operations of the organization can be conducted easily and smoothly. The employees of the organizations need to be guided by the people who are working in the organization. These people who guide the employees are managers and leaders. The company that has been used to discuss the different concepts of leadership and management is Pret A Manger.
Leaders are the one who have the capability and the skills to lead and guide other individuals or the team. There are different approaches and theories that have been given regarding the leadership styles of the leaders. As there are many theories regarding the topic, there are many definitions that define leadership (Bush, 2007). It totally depends on the person what he or she may think about leadership. The basic definition of leadership suggests that the leaders are the one who have followers. In order to gain those followers, the leaders have to show the traits of leadership such as having their influence on others, having convincing power etc. Researchers are still looking for the fact that whether the leaders are born or can be made. The answer to this question or research varies according to the study done and according to the traits possessed by different leaders in different situations (Nahavandi, 2016).
Management on the other hand is defined as the process to make others work in effective manner. It is not necessary that the managers show the path to their subordinates or either provide them skills to do the particular task but the manager has the duty to make the work efficient in order to conduct that task in effective manner. Management is basically that process that deals with accomplishing the goals of the organization by making the employees work in a path that drives the organizational achievements (Bush, 2008). Along with the individual achievement of the employees, the question that arises is that whether the leaders and the mangers have same role or is it possible for the organization to only have leaders or managers.
It has been identified that the organization with balance requires leadership a well as management because both have equal importance in the organizations. Managers have different approaches since years. This is because of the thinking and the perspective of different theorists (Bass and Stogdill, 1990). It has been analysed that in the beginning of the management studies, the classical theory of management is being introduced (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). Fayol and Urwick were the people who have given this theory of classical management. According to this theory, the theorists were concerned with the organizational level tasks and not the tasks at individual level (Bush, 2008). This theory suggests that the management is related to accomplishing the objectives of the organization by making the employees work in the direction of achieving the organizational goals. After this classical theory, human relation theory has been introduced; this theory suggested that it is very important to involve the human factor in order to make the employees work effectively at the workplace (Carroll, Levy and Richmond, 2008). Other theories like behavioural theory was also introduced those talks about the behaviour of the people. It is the transformation of the human relation theory. After that, the modern management theories have been introduced in which the situation is the most important factor that has been considered. According to this theory, the contingency or the situation is the most important aspect that needs to be involved if the manager wants to manage the company (Northouse, 2015). The manager has to change its strategies according to the situation and this is considered as the most favourable approach to deal with the dynamic environment that affects the business.
Management theories
Management by objective is the new concept that can be discussed in this section. According to this concept, the mangers of the company delegate some duties to the employees or provide them with some individual objectives that are being aligned with the organisational objectives. Achieving the individual objectives by the employees ultimately results in achieving the organizational objectives (Schein, 2010). This pariah is best suited for the organization with formal working process.
There are various functions that a manger needs to be performing in the organization. Some of them are discussed below:
Planning: it is the first step that needs to be conducted by the managers in order to manage the organization. In this step, the managers need to think over the issue before initiating nay activity regarding the same (Ofori, 2009).
Organizing: Organizing is the process of aligning the activities those are to be conducted in the whole process. Alignment of the activities helps in providing the direction to the employee that needs o be followed by them (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
Staffing: This is most important function of the manager. This function requires the manager to recruit the employees with a particular skill that are required by the process of achieving the objectives.
Directing: This is another function of managers. Managers cannot teach the employees about the skills or educate with the particular study to conduct the task but he has to show the direction or the both that needs to be followed in order the conduct the whole task.
Controlling: directing is about giving direction by controlling is about monitoring the working of the employees (Robinson, Lloyd and Rowe, 2008). This function involves the process like performance management of the employees, monitoring the outputs, ensuring that they are meeting their deadlines etc.
There are various leadership styles that were given by the theorist but, majorly 5 leadership styles have been studied in order to understand the difference in the leadership traits and patterns of different people. The first style that can be discussed is the autocratic style of leadership in which the leaders have all the power to take the decision and not the followers. Another leadership style that is opposite of this leadership style is Laissez faire style in which the followers are free to do whatever they want (French, Thomas, Baker, Burton, Pennington and Roddam, 2009). The leaders only play the role of guide and do not interfere in the working of the followers. There is a leadership style that falls in the mid of both the above discussed styles that is called participative or democratic leadership. It is the leadership style in which the leaders have the power to take the decision but the opinions of followers are also considered in order to make the decision. Transformation and transactional are two other major types of leadership styles that are of immense important for the leaders (Gordon, 2009). The leaders who follow the transactional leadership style provide the followers with the pre-determined goals and rewards or punish them according to their performance. On the other hand, the transformational leaders motivate the employees to perform. These are the leaders who try to influence and convince the employees or the followers to work effectively.
Management functions
“Hard” management and “soft” leadership:
Management is considered as the approach that is hard in nature while leadership is soft in nature. This is because management require the formal communication and relation between the employees and the managers while leadership requires the behavioural bond between the leaders and the followers. Management is about the hierarchy and the delegation of duties while leadership is about influencing and convincing others by making the bonds.
Clive Schlee is the leader and the manager at Pret A manger. It is the business of sandwich that is based at UK. It is a very famous shop in UK that attracts many customers by its delicious sandwiches (Canina, Palacios and Devece, 2012). The CEO of the business that is Clive Schlee is the manager and the leader of the company. This is because he plays the role of manager and the lead according to the situation. In addition to conduction of the management functions, Clive also believes in building trust among the employees and the management so that employees can work effectively. It is suggested that the managers have to lead the employees as well at the time when required. Clive is the manager who can lead the people (Woods, 2009).
Situation leadership model suggests that there is no best way to deal with the employees or to lead the employees every time. Situation is the factor that affects the leadership style that needs to be selected in order to lead the people (Huarng and Ribeiro-Soriano, 2014). The model suggests that there are four types of leadership styles that have been used in different situations.
Delegating: It is the style that is used when the employees are able as well as willing to work. At this time, the leaders have to use the delegating style of leadership. This leadership involves providing responsibilities to the employees but monitoring their actions.
Participative: Another situation is where the participating style is being used is the situation where the employees are able but not willing to work (Ryan and Tipu, 2013). To bring that willingness, it is requited by the leader to involve the employees in the decision making process.
Selling: The next situation is the situation where they are not able and not willing to work. At this time, the leaders have to use the approach of selling. The leaders have to make efforts in motivating the employees and teach them at every step.
Leadership styles
Telling: The last one is the telling leadership which is used in the situation where the employees are willing to perform but not able to. At this time the leaders have to behave as coach and educate the employees about the skills required to perform the task (Fry, 2009).
It is the model that focuses on two types of leadership. The first is the task oriented leadership in which the main focus of the leader is on the task and the relationship oriented leadership in which the main focus on leader is to complete the task (Shafritz, Ott and Jang, 2015). According to this model, the leaders have to analyse the followers they are dealing with and then chose the style of leadership.
One of the theories of leadership suggests that there are certain elements of organization that neutralizes the effect of leadership on the followers. Neutralizers are the element that eliminates the effect of the leadership on the followers or neutralizes the effect that needs to be there on the followers due to leadership (Mahmood, Basharat and Bashir, 2012). The elements like experience and training substitutes or eliminate the need of the leaders. This is because the employees who are trained or experiences need not to be guided by the leaders (Morton and Hu, 2008). Neutralizing and substituting of leadership is a very controversial concept to be understood. This is because if the employee is experienced and doing a task he enjoys itself act as the motivator for the employee and thus he does not require the leaders for motivation (Cole, 2004). Does this neutralize the effect of leadership? It is not the case; the motivation of the task is just the substitute of leadership but cannot neutralize the effect of leadership on the employee.
Conclusion and recommendation:
The CEO of Pret A Manger known as Clive Schlee, is the one who act as manager as well as the leaders in the company. This is because; he needs to manage the objectives as well as the bond with the employees (Frei, Goldberg and van Sice, 2012). Management is considered as the hard approach while the leadership is considered as the soft approach. Thus, it is important for the mangers of the organizations to be soft and at the same time in order to make the balance in the organization. Pret A manger is facing the similar type of leadership or management by its CEO. The balance in the organization supports the employees as well as the mangers to achieve the organizational objectives effectively and efficiently.
“Hard” management and “soft” leadership
It is recommended to the companies like Pret A Manger that they should use the contingency approach of leadership as well as the situational model order to lead the employees so that different styles of leadership can be used in the situations (Waring, 2016). It is identified that no only approach can always be used to deal with every situation and with every person so, the leaders or the managers have to analyse the situation and the traits of the person to be guided and then choose the approach or the style to manage or to lead.
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