In an approximately 500-word response, address the following issues/questions: A

Question

In an approximately 500-word response,
address the following issues/questions:

Analyse how management and leadership are conceptualised in a number of different ways.

In formulating your Key Concept Exercise, consider the following issues/questions:
How are leadership and management talent developed in your organisation?

Is learning underpinned by a normative ‘management by numbers’ approach and/or is the political, social and economic context in which managers operate acknowledged?

How are you learning to become a better manager, and how has the underlying approach of your organisation helped or hindered your development?

Explanation / Answer

Analyse how management and leadership are conceptualised in a number of different ways.

Leadership” is different from “management”; many just know it intuitively but have not been able to understand this difference clearly. These are two entirely different functions based on their underlying philosophies, functions, and outcomes. Similarly, leaders and managers are not the same people. They apply different conceptualizations and approaches to work, exercise different ways of problem solving, undertake different functions in the organizations, and exhibit different behaviors owing to their different intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Although discretely different, the terms “manager” and “leader” are often confused and used interchangeably. This paper attempts to address this issue at various levels, including etymological, development, conceptual distinctions, definitional complexities, functional divergence, and behavioral differences. It is argued that in order to be competitive, future organizations need to develop as many leaders as possible, but that these leaders should also have sufficient management knowledge and capabilities. Organizations also need effective managers who possess adequate leadership skills for better problem solving and overall functioning in the teams.

The literature on leadership dates back to several centuries. Ancient approaches to leadership comprise the writings of early philosophers and thinkers who put together their thoughts on leaders, leadership,and the need for leadership development. Philosophers such as Aristotle Despite the different timing of their evolution and the different contexts in which these concepts developed, leadership and management are widely used interchangeably. Although many scholars have attempted to provide a distinction; there is a common confusion that leadership is similar to management and leaders are similar to managers highlighted the growing interest of scholars in differentiating leadership from other related phenomena such as entrepreneurship and management. Some scholars argue that leadership and management are two opposing styles of employee supervision that are both popular, and are still being used in the business world it is clear that scholars differ in defining “leadership” but the underlying philosophy remains mainly undisputed. Conceptual foundations of “leadership” are very old, and can be traced to ancient literature mostly in the context of politics, government, religion, and society. It has been one of the world’s oldest preoccupations, serving as both a hot topic and an important driver of innovation for thousands of years That is, leadership is a process that involves vision, motivation, and actions of the leader that enables the followers to achieve certain collective goals. It involves the leader, followers, and the situation. The purpose of leadership is to provide direction and bring about change. On the other hand, the conceptual foundations of “management” emerged during the period of relatively rapid economic development and industrialization of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such developments brought up the need for appropriate means of organization, planning, and scheduling of available resources. The emergence of large and complex organizations in the early twentieth century and escalation in the search for better ways of resource utilization led to the development of a rational, scientific approach to the study of management, as efforts were made to turn organizations into efficient operating machines In brief, leadership and management are not only different at the definitional level, but also, their conceptual foundations have been developed from different needs and contexts. In these regards, it can be observed that leadership involves power by influence and management involves power by position. Leadership is about coping with change while management is about coping with complexity that leaders are change agents whereas managers are principally administrators. Leaders have broad perspectives enabling them to peer into the future to determine needs and what changes need to be made to ensure and facilitate growth and survival, but managers are guided by a drive to handle routine in order to produce efficiently
becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself; however, becoming a manager is becoming what a company wants you to become. Leaders produce the potential for dramatic change, chaos, and even failure; but managers produce standards, consistency, predictability, and order
Leaders are more about soul (or heart) rather than mind, while managers have more of mind rather than soul
The following inclusion criteria for literature sources were applied:

The 80 works reviewed may not be all-inclusive, but they do represent a range of management and leadership work and cover various aspects, which will be dealt with in the literature review. Topics include the linguistic origin and meaning of the terms in their contemporary subject matter-specific interpretation; the hierarchical levels in the organisation, from the shop floor to executive management positions; and the contributions of practitioners to academia, and research results to viewpoints adopted.

How are leadership and management talent developed in your organisation?

Time. It’s scarce, and urgent tasks have a tendency to consume it. Leaders who aren’t disciplined in their priorities will be subject to daily crises that interfere with activities that are part of a long-term investment in people.

Focus on visible skills. As leaders rise to more senior positions, it’s natural to feel like they need to demonstrate strategic thinking, strong business acumen, and effective P&L management — noticeable skills that catch people’s attention. Building talent, on the other hand, is less obvious and has a long-term payoff.

Lack of development culture. One of the most interesting findings in the research is that even lower-level leaders who made talent development a priority start to slip when they enter the senior ranks. One-on-one coaching can be intrinsically fulfilling and, for that reason alone, leaders are more likely to set aside time for it. But senior executives make the biggest impact when they distinguish between individual coaching and organizational coaching. It’s the latter that lacks most. Call it the culture, or environment, of development that’s missing.

Reinforce shared values. Employees should be able to link their everyday tasks and responsibilities to the values in the organization. People need to understand why what they do is important.

Leverage problems as opportunities for real world learning and development. What’s an acceptable failure needs to be clarified and that way, by incorporating stretch assignments, employees can seek out challenges where they can develop without feeling like mistakes will set them back in their career or jeopardize their job. Learning organizations see problems as opportunities.

Lack of training in managerial appointments

Just 18% of employers expect managers to have management training before being appointed. This suggests that four out of five companies regularly promote people to management roles without any management training. This suggests a need to promote the lasting value and cost efficiency of talent planning, development and succession management.

Graduate recruitment

Our research shows a strong correlation between talent planning and graduate recruitment - those with a graduate recruitment programme also tend to have a more coherent strategy for managing talent throughout the business. A joined-up approach to graduate recruitment is a reliable indicator that an organisation is focused on talent.

We also found that more than one in three employers feel universities could do more to prepare graduate for the workplace by developing the core skills and attributes required of new managers.

Succession planning

A talent plan is critical to helping employers match skills development with internal needs. Yet only 57% of respondents have a plan in place. Smaller businesses are the least likely to have a management development strategy - one in four say that it's managers' own responsibility to see to their training and development.

Is learning underpinned by a normative ‘management by numbers’ approach and/or is the political, social and economic context in which managers operate acknowledged?

A particular agency must be able to develop a capacity to continually monitor its operating environment.It will need to identified relevant issues in the contamporary overall social, political and economic context ,and it will need to address these specifically in its planning and management processes.

An emerging issues for most agencies , for examples is for them to be able to respond to concerns for longer term environmental balance in managing development processes.

The dynamic interation which might influence the development of the planning and management objective for an individual irrigation agency.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the planning system does everything it can to support sustainable economic growth. Planning should operate to encourage and not act as an impediment to sustainable growth. Therefore significant weight should be placed on the need to support economic growth through the planning system.

The Government is committed to securing economic growth in order to create jobs and prosperity, building on the country’s inherent strengths, and to meeting the twin challenges of global competition and of a low carbon future.

Understands organizational politics, issues and external influences

Understands and operates effectively in a broad spectrum of political, cultural and social

Understands and uses informal structure

How are you learning to become a better manager, and how has the underlying approach of your organisation helped or hindered your development?

Choose the right people

While certain individuals may seem like shoe-ins for a leadership position based on their personality or their current role within a company, it's crucial to take all performance and experience factors into account before determining their leadership candidacy.

"Before you start teaching and enhancing the skills of a leader, you have to start with the right person," said Brian Sullivan, a vice president at sales and management training firm Sandler Training. "This person should have a track record of success [in their current role] and have already exhibited leadership traits. Not everything they'll be doing as a leader is necessarily something they've done before, but these two fundamental items are the springboard for any type of training."

Sullivan also told leaders not to allow favoritism to come into play when choosing a successor, and make a decision based solely on a candidate's qualifications.

Make sure they understand the business

A good leader must always be training the next generation of leaders, said Stephen Sheinbaum, founder of financial technology company Bizfi, which provides alternative finance for small businesses. To do this, leadership candidates need to be well-versed in where your business is headed, and what kinds of people and skills will be needed to make that happen.

"If a greater use of technology is going to be key to the future growth of your company, then you've got to make sure that your leaders understand that technology and its importance in your industry," Sheinbaum said. "They may not be the ones writing the code, but they have to know how to hire, communicate with and guide the coders that you will need."

Build their listening skills

One of the most important skills a leader can acquire is how to listen. A true leader always takes his or her team's feedback into account when making decisions. This skill can be taught by being a good listener yourself.

"Always listen to the input you receive, and act on it," said Guryan Tighe, a partner at Speakeasy Strategies public relations firm. "If you have only your own agenda in mind, you can't truly hear others' input and potentially, the next great idea. Make sure your business is set up to stimulate people around you to create and take initiative. For example, ask the trainees about their training experience, as this encourages an environment focused on growth and development."

Help them craft a future vision

"Vision" is a word that is commonly thrown around in reference to leaders, but what does it really mean? Denise Brosseau, CEO of Thought Leadership Lab, believes it involves the ability to inspire others to see a future worth striving for.

"[Leaders should] focus on crafting a compelling vision of the future that they will work to bring about," said Brosseau, author of "Ready to Be a Thought Leader?" (Jossey-Bass, 2014). "This future must be something they are passionate about, but they must also have the credibility and experience to make progress toward achieving it."

Teaching leadership candidates how to create and articulate their own future vision will help them when it comes time to actually execute plans to get there.

Look at their motivations

If a leadership candidate seems more excited about being "the boss" who's in charge of others, he or she probably isn't the best person for the job. A good leader knows that his or her job is working for everybody else, "Leadership is an executive club, and it shouldn't be taken for granted," Falcinelli told Business News Daily. "Leaders aren't caught up with the notion of people working for them. They'll have the passion and drive to get where they need to go, and they'll know that to get there, they have to work for and through other people."

Don’t duck conflict, but deal with it directly and fairly –

As any manager knows, the workplace environment is a fertile breeding ground for conflict. Interpersonal issues, compensation, recognition, cost-cutting, layoffs, management-employee relations… there’s never a shortage of emotionally charged issues that can lead to conflict. As much as it’s often tempting to look the other way, the best managers aren’t “conflict avoiders” – they address problems quickly and fairly. Employees are keen observers; they note who takes action when needed and who doesn’t. They respect managers who confront difficult situations, just as they’ll lose respect for those who chronically avoid them.

Protect your time as if it were gold (or perhaps Bitcoins?) –

Time is an underrated but crucial management asset, essential to thoughtful decision making.   Managers are routinely pulled in too many directions.   I know I was, which often resulted in just getting stuff done…rushed work rather than optimized work.   The most effective executives I knew protected their schedules vigilantly. They did what they needed to do, of course, but they prioritized well, delegated effectively, and left themselves with enough time to carefully think through what they most needed to.

Be open to new ways of looking at things –

The best managers are flexible, adaptable, and closely attuned to their environment. They’re always looking for opportunities. Be a good listener. Many of the best process improvement ideas routinely come from employees in the trenches, as they’re the ones closest to the actual work. Rigidity is the enemy of progress. Don’t be afraid to shift the paradigm and move away from, “This is the way we’ve always done it here.”

Organization development is an effort (1) planned, (2) organizationwide, and (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organization’s “processes,” using behavioral-science knowledge

Increasing Employee Participation in a Public Sector Organization .

Senior Management Coaching at Vodaphone.

Team Development in a Cancer Center.

A Future Search Conference in a Northern California Community.

A Long-Term Strategic Change Engagement.

Training and Development.

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