Leadership is a process of energy, not structure. in this Essay

Leadership is a process of energy, not structure. in this way,leadership is different from management- managers pursue stabilit - Essay Example This essay will look at the differences between leadership and management in terms of how a leader achieves his purpose and the responsibility of management. The phrase â€Å"Leadership is a process of energy, not structure, in this way, leadership is different from management- managers pursue stability while leadership is all about change† shows that the interest of a manager is maintaining processes and structures ensuring stability while a leader seeks to improve by initiating and driving change in an organisation (Boje, Burnes & Hassard, 2011, p38). In the current business and organisational environment, the decision making organs of an organisation have valued the leadership style to drive change in the organisation, which will ensure that the organisation is competitively placed in the market while still insisting on managerial qualities to ensure reliability in the organisation. One of the key differentiating factors between the leaders and managers is that while the ma nagers maintain the status quo, a leader is interested in developing the organisation to greater heights of success.When a manager is in charge of an organisation or a department within an organisation, his main responsibility is to ensure that that department has maintained the levels of performance that it has. (Mondy, Noe & Gowan, 2005, p68). For instance if a manager is in charge of the human resource department in an organisation, his main interest will be to ensure that the employees do not reduce their levels of productivity or their work ethics, he does this by following the laid down procedures processes and the norms and values that an organisation has. A leader who is in charge of the organisation or the department, his main purpose is to break the status quo in the organisation or department and ensure that it performs better than it was before he took the management position (Kouzes & Posner, 2007, p69). Take a leader for example, who takes control of the human resource department of an organisation, he will learn the operating ethics that the employees have, including the department’s culture norms and values, he will then purpose to learn the strength and weaknesses of the employees in the department. A leader will then analyse these and change the department’s culture if it was an inhibiting factor to good performance, he then will have aim at focussing on improving the performance of the employees based on their strengths and weaknesses and therefore improving the productivity of the human resource department, he is in charge of. While the main point of focus for managers is the systems and structures, a leader is more focused on the people (Wissman, Knippa & Roberts, 2008, p109). A manager’s point of focus is the structures and systems that govern an organisation, these include the set norms, values and code of conduct in the organisation, he then aims at improving these without leaving loopholes that may encourage laxity among the employees (Daudelin, 1994, p35). This in essence means that the employees follow a strict way in performance of their duty and to some extent, their flexibility is limited by the laid down procedures. A manager in a school setting for instance will insist on