LEADERSHIP TRAITS & STYLES

LEADERSHIP TRAITS & STYLES

There are differences between leadership and management. For example, Zaleznik explores the difference in attitudes towards goals, conceptions of work, relations with others, self-perception, and development.

Managers tend to adopt impersonal or passive attitudes toward goals. Leaders adopt a more personal and active attitude toward goals.

The manager must continually coordinate and balance to compromise conflicting values to get people to accept solutions. The leader creates excitement in work and develops choices that give substance to images that excite people.

In their relationships with other people, managers maintain low emotional involvement. Leaders empathize with others and pay attention to what events and actions mean.

Managers see themselves more as conservators and regulators of the existing order of affairs with which they identify and from which they gain rewards. Leaders work in but do not belong to the organization. Their sense of identity does not depend upon membership or work roles; they search for opportunities for change.

Watson has applied the differences between leadership and management to the 7-S organizational framework of strategy, structure, systems, style, staff, skills, and superordinate (or shared) goals. Watson suggests that managers tend towards reliance on:

1. Strategy - an organizationally agreed objective and plan to achieve it within the business environment in which the company operates

2. Structure - the structure of the organization and the coordination of functions and hierarchies within that structure

3. Systems - the processes and procedures which enable the company to conduct its business

4. Style - the dominant styles of management and operation within the organization

5. Staff - the people within the organization that can be deployed and managed effectively

6. Skills - the capabilities of the workforce and the organization as a whole

7. Shared values - known as superordinate goals in the original paper, these are the goals, aspirations, and values commonly held across the organization - known as superordinate goals in the original paper, these are the goals, aspirations, and values commonly held across the organization known as superordinate goals in the original paper, these are the goals, aspirations, and values commonly held across the organization - known as superordinate goals in the original paper, these are the goals, aspirations, and values commonly held across the organization