Developing Leadership & Management Skills Essay

Question
1.1 Describe a range of meanings attached to the concepts of leadership and management.

1.2 Justify distinctions drawn between leadership and management.

2.1 Evaluate a range of approaches for developing leaders and managers.

2.2 Discuss the role of the L&D function in providing leadership and management development.

3.1 Identify indicators of success for leadership and management development programmes.

3.2 Justify methods to ensure the success of leadership and management development programmes.

Solution/Answer
Introduction
In the contemporary business operations, the concept of leadership and management is critical to the HR professionals as it dictates the operations in their organisation, guiding their goals and objectives and dictating the level of relationship between the management and the group. According to McCleskey (2014), a suitable leadership and management development in an organisation is instrumental in improving performance and attaining overall economic growth. For instance, a strong leadership harnesses the capacity of innovativeness, exploitation of fresh ideas and development of new propositions for holistic business growth. To affirm this, Westerman et al. (2012) observed that strong leadership and management tend to unlock the potential of the workforce, harnessing the skills, ideas and knowledge essential for propelling holistic business productivity. This essay provides a clear distinction between leadership and management, best practice in ensuring ownership and success of development programs.
1.1 Leadership and Management Concepts Interpretations
Whilst the management and leadership concepts have a significant deal in common such as operating collaboratively for organisation goals accomplishment; they differ in terms of primary functions. According to Lambert and Sponem (2012), the primary management function is maintaining order and consistency through planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing and problem-solving. However, primary leadership function is to produce a movement and constructive or adaptive change. This is done through a series of processes inclusive of establishing direction through visioning, people alignment, motivation and inspiration.
Leadership Concepts;
Leadership as a Process
Leadership is viewed as a process contrary to traits, styles, knowledge and attributes of the leaders. In this case, Zhu et al. (2012) noted that leadership is defined as a process where all group members are actively involved, and not a single person lead. This is evident from an organisation I was involved with in Dubai, UAE where the organisation leadership is intended to attain their objectives, motivating the followers in achieving their goals and maintenance of relationships and teamwork.
Leadership as Personality Traits of Leader
According to Walumbwa and Schaubroeck (2009), the trait approach is a concept of defining leadership has been prevalent since the starting of 20th century till late 1940’s. Hence, leadership is a process where leaders and managers lean to motivations and actions of others to attain set goals. This means taking initiatives and risks for the benefit of an overall organisation for overall success. In my current organisation practice, this is evident when leaders influence the followers in maximizing the efforts of others towards attainment of a common goal.
Leadership as attributed by Followers
In this concept, the focus gravitates more to the followers rather than leaders. According to Williams et al. (2012), this concept of leadership is founded on belief that leaders are attributed the liable to followers. It is in this light that Day et al. (2014) pointed out that the focus of leadership should oriented on social-psychological process progressive among followers independent of leader traits. In my current organisation, leadership is viewed as attribution of making sense of a situation and social construction instead of the leader traits. In this case, the best the leadership, the better organisation goals and objectives are achieved.
Management Concepts;
Management is comprised of four main concepts. The concepts include a process of interrelated social and technical functions and activities, process guiding accomplishment of organizational objectives, using people and resources in the implementation of the goals and establishment of a formal organizational setting. It is the role of senior managers to establish the organizational objectives with all players in an organisation working towards achieving the goals. Also, it is the role of the management to provide an organizational context where direct and support work is performed effectively and preparations made in an organisation for dealing with threats and opportunities in their external environment.
The second concept is shaping the organizational values and culture through decision making and leading by example with the senior managers having the most precise and most direct influence. Hence, an overall entity performance is the best evidence of the efforts put by the managers. As noted by Schaubroeck et al. (2012), irrespective of the hierarchical levels, the managers in an organisation engages in the same basic, generic functions despite senior levels decisions having the most dramatic implication. Lastly, the managers are identified by functioning, skills employed, roles played and competencies they reveal for success.
1.2 Distinctions between the Leadership and Management Concepts