Leadership and Management: Perspectives
This post is dedicated to the discussion of leadership and management.This topic is very dear to my heart and ignites my passion for a meaningful, productive change in the society.Leadership and management have been studied in great detail and have different connotations in different contexts. Most of the leadership theories have been formed and studied in a military perspective. In the reading done in the chapter from Grint, there are several key points that point towards the relevance of this topic and this debate in mundane activities. Grint in particular, takes an approach that is very critical and leads us to question our preformed notions and understanding. This challenge is what makes the reading exceptional and inspiring. Grint focuses on leadership and management as two sides of the same coin and argues that ultimately whichever side you choose the ultimate orientation is goal setting. However, the other reading Northouse was unique in its own right, it was easy on the eyes, the brain and very simple to assimilate. It focused on the leader -follower relationship in great detail and often focused on them as the two sides of a coin. Northouse simply describes roles and targets who accomplishes what and thereby distinguishes the leader from the manager. Northouse identifies a leader as someone associated with ‘change and movement’ and a manager who is in charge of bringing about ‘order and stability’. Essentially management is defined in a very transactional approach and leadership in a a very transformational approach by Northouse.
In reality, it is true that managers are responsible for policy and compliance issues and leaders are associated with ‘change’ but what is a leader who cannot manage his group well and what is a manager that cannot lead his group well. Even though leadership and management are distinct in many ways they are also similar in many ways.Leadership and management ‘go hand in hand’ ( Grint) and this is definitely true.As I read more about the two, I see how they overlap and how they lend meaning to each others existence. I believe now more than ever before that leadership and management are dependent on each other and have to be addressed on the same platform if growth has to be attainable and sustainable .
The part of the reading that caught my attention more than anything else was the paragraph in Grint ” Leadership is associated with mobilization of resources, of all forms, providing new perspectives and avenues”………”Do not follow the leader or the follower, track the mobilization of resources i.e. change”. It is amazing that many things make more sense to me now because of that one paragraph. It was very enlightening to sit under a tree and think about the possibilities that those words made possible for me personally. It made me think about if people are themselves the resource, then track their change, track where they are and where they can be…….track how their movement brings about the change that is required in society. The readings definitely gave me a new perspective , a new understanding of leadership in a human development perspective.