8/3/2019 The Role of a Manager in an ion

1/1

THE ROLE OF A MANAGER IN AN

ORGANISATION

A manager in an organisation is not always a leader. Management and leadership are two differentconcepts, though often appear to overlap.Modern organisations tend to be complex and operate in a global business environment. Therefore,there is renewed focus on the importance of management and leadership and their distinctive roles inpromoting and advancing the interests of the organisation. Hard competition and continuouspressures for change demand that managers and leaders work closely together for achievingbusiness goals.

On the practical level, a manager is called upon to evince the quality of leadership and a leader theknack for managing difficult situations in their respective roles in any organisation. Pragmaticallyspeaking, then, the distinction between a mana-ger and leader is not problematic. A mana-ger is

often portrayed as a procedural administrator/supervisor

an individual in an organisation withrecognized formal authority who plans, coordinates and implements the existing directions of theorganisation (Koontz et al, 1986).A leader, on the other hand, is defined as someone who occupies a position of influence within agroup that extends beyond supervisory responsibility and formal authority (Vecchio et al. 1994: 504)and is involved in devising new directions and leading followers to attain group, organisational andsocietal goals (Avery 1990: 453). This distinction between the supervisory manager and visionaryleader has to be understood in terms of their respective tasks and functions.

Dunsford, a management guru, believes that management is concerned with efficiencywith taskssuch as coordinating resources and implementing policy, while leadership has to concern itself witheffectiveness of making decisions, setting directions and principles, formulating issues and grappling

with problems. Katz (1974: 90-102), however, has identified three critical managerial skills and thelast two happen to be attributes of competent leadership. These are: technical skills (the ability toperform particular tasks or activities); interpersonal skills (the ability to work well with other people);and conceptual skills (the ability to see the big picture).

Modern leadership theory supports an integrated approach to management and leadership. Earlywork on leadership identified the various styles of leadership based on personal traits and behaviourof an effective leader, such as drive, desire to lead, decisiveness, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, job relevant knowledge (Kirkpatrick and Locke 1991: 48-60). Thebehaviourist models focused on the relationship between a leaders actions and their impact on theattitudes and performance of employees. These studies compared various styles of leadership, suchas authoritarian and democratic styles. They studied if an effective leader was more prone to efficientaccomplishment of a task rather than being inclined to the welfare of employees and subordinates.

The ideal style, as proposed by Stogdill in 1974, combined the best ofboth approaches. In later work we find considerations of leadership theory aspart of a wider approach to modern management.

The traditional distinctions between a manager and leader is disappearing. Modern business operatesin the midst of uncertainties as the current global slowdown and enveloping financial crisis show.Accordingly, the role of a manager demands flexibility, dynamism, management skills as well asleadership quality.