CASE STUDY 2

Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?

By Abraham Zaleznik

Introduction

“Business leaders have much more in common with artists than they do with managers” - Abraham
Zaleznik

Major Ideas

 The difference between managers and leaders.

 Personality, attitudes toward goals, conceptions of work, and relations with others.
 Development of leadership.

Conceptual Thoughts

 Managers react quickly when facing problems while leaders do not do so.
 Managers tend to be rationalists and organized while leaders depend on their imagination
and usually disorganized.
 Managers tend to adopt impersonal attitudes toward goals while leaders’ goals stem from
their personal desires.
 When making decisions, managers like to involve people and interact ideas while leaders
usually have one-man-show personality.
 Managers focus on people they love to socialize with others and avoid solitary activity while
leaders do not pay more attention to that as they focus on things.

Development of leadership:

1. Peer training.
2. Direct influence of senior on junior executives.

Conclusion

 Managers and leaders are two very different types of people.

 Managers’ goals arise out of necessities rather than desires; they excel at defusing conflicts
between individuals or departments, placating all sides while ensuring that an organization’s
day-to-day business gets done.
 Leaders, on the other hand, adopt personal, active attitudes toward goals. They look for the
opportunities and rewards that lie around the corner, inspiring subordinates and firing up
the creative process with their own energy. Their relationships with employees and co-
workers are intense, and their working environment is often chaotic.
 Businesses need both managers and leaders to survive and succeed.
 The managerial power ethic favours collective leadership and seeks to avoid risk. Businesses
must find ways to train good managers and develop leaders at the same time. Without a
solid organizational framework, even leaders with the most brilliant ideas may spin their
wheels, frustrating co-workers and accomplishing little. But without the entrepreneurial
culture that develops when a leader is at the helm of an organization, a business will
stagnate and rapidly lose competitive power.