The terms leadership and management are often used interchangeably Essay

The terms leadership and management are often used interchangeably where some writers argued to clear distinction between management and leadership whether is it simply a function of management - Essay Example The research on the literature published on the specific field proved that a series of differences exist between leadership and management. This phenomenon is common in all industrial sectors, including the airline industry on which this paper focuses. Researchers have used different criteria in order to describe leadership and management – as developed in modern organizations. In accordance with Nurmi et al. (1997) the leadership can be characterized as ‘an influencing force’ (Nurmi et al., 1997, p.135) within the organization. It is at this point that leadership is differentiated by management; more specifically, it is noted that ‘a manager can be appointed while leadership can be earned’ (Nurmi et al., 1997, p.135). Moreover, Weihrich (2007) states that leadership can be defined as ‘the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly toward the achievement of group goals’ (Weihrich, 2007, p.347). In accordance with the above views, leaders need to have increased skills compared to managers. The latter may be appropriately educated but may not be charismatic enough in order to be leaders. In other words, leadership refers to a combination of technical and inte rpersonal skills while management can be related to specific educational and professional background. In practice, the potential limitation of management towards the leadership may not be identified. This is the case, for instance, where the manager has not to act as a leader, a phenomenon common in mid-managerial positions. A similar approach is adopted in the study developed by the Pergamon Flexible Learning (2007); in the above study it is noted that management is differentiated from leadership at the following points: a) the manager focuses on the administration of various organizational activities while the leader tries to promote innovation across the organization, b) the manager focuses on