Management and leadership development
This week�s Key Concept Exercise asks you to think about and discuss how leaders and managers
are developed in organisations. Rather than simply considering the strategies and techniques that are
used, you are asked first of all to think about how management and leadership are conceptualised.
Use some of the ideas from this week�s reading about the nature of management to frame your
thoughts and responses.
Next, reflect on your own learning and particularly on how organisational arrangements for talent
development have helped or hindered you.
Surname 2
In real life, the practices of leadership and management have been interpreted and
defined in different terms. This diverse definition of the two practices, makes necessitate the
need to understand the meaning of the two practices Boyatzis, (2008). Thus, in this paper I
will uniquely explore different conceptualization of management and leadership practices. In
agreement with Nienaber, (2010), most of the concepts are misleading and have neither a
basis nor foundation. Besides, I will look into different techniques or procedures that are
employed by institutions in leadership and management development.
First thing in conceptualization, there is a need for understanding the real meaning of
the terms leadership and management before embarking on any form of misleading
perception. A good example of this is portrayed in the classical management theory, which
illustrates with examples the technical perception Nienaber, (2010). This scholar explains
how there is a dominating idea of the role played by the managers in an institution, which are
planning, coordinating, and controlling. Thus, it makes the managers take credit for the
ordered organization environment.
Secondly, there is the political perspective on management, which stresses on the
ideas of the plurality of interest groups, and their research lies in finding out the sources of
power and conflict in an institution set up. This makes the institution look like a political
arena where the managers seek to understand which side in the organization power rest. The
third is critical perspective which is nowadays referred to as the labor process school of
thought. This perspective underpins the wear out of the society that the managers should
develop Canals, (2014).
Surname 3
The last but not least perspective is that view management as a social practice. Herein,
the management is in a messy state and no chronological order like in the classical
perspective case. This makes the organization’s management tasks to be carried out by
different people.
On the question of leaders and managers development, my institution adopts different
development strategies to execute this task. The first frequently used method is practice-
based learning. Learning from experience (during the work), is considered as the most
essential and crucial way that leaders and managers are developed. This is because it creates
room for questioning the underpinned assumption and also new thoughts and ideas to emerge
Boyatzis, (2008). This makes the person learning gain a lot of experience through
participation, which is better compared to reading books or manuals.
The second leadership and management development strategies that the company
utilizes are training events. These are conducted in the form of workshops that equip the
participants with theories, models and ideas that are considered best practices Canals, (2014).
At the end of the workshop, there are set objectives to be achieved, and in most cases, they
are set to assess the understanding of the participant. In addition to this, the organization can
sometimes offer job promotions, which call for leadership and management development.
Through this opportunity is created for the development process.
In case of leadership and management, the learning process is underpinned by the
normative ‘management by number’. This means that those in leadership and management
posts seek to find the source of power and conflict in the organization Casey, (2013). This
move helps them to secure their position in the organization. This also helps them pass some
of the agendas that are in their favor. Besides, it makes them stronger in competing for the
limited resources in the organization and also use the authoritative power to allocate
resources.
Surname 4
On the other hand, the political, social, and economic context of the managerial
operation are well acknowledged in the society. The managers of firms play a vital role not
only at the economic level but also at political and social level Chin, et al. (2013). They
participate in the important development of the society in ensuring that there exists a
corporate social responsibility, through upholding the organization’s objectives and core
values. Politically, in most cases, they help in swaying power from one political party to the
other. Thus, this makes them acknowledged in the society.
In my learning process of becoming a manager, I have adopted the coaching strategy
for my leadership and management development. This has helped in covering some areas that
could have been hard to get from published literature. This has been a result of a one-one talk
with experienced managers, and they have been bombarding me with long time gained
experience. In addition, it has been an excellent approach since most of these managers talk
out of the experience and not necessarily learned theory.
This method has been of great help since most of them have gained confidence in the
competence in management and leadership skills. They have also introduced me to other
possibilities that can assist in achieving my goals in leadership and management journey.
Thus, I strongly agree that this strategy for leadership and management development is
helpful for it impacts direct knowledge from the horse’s mouth (firsthand information). Not
to mention, how the mentors have recommended other seminars and workshop that has also
improved my management skills.
Surname 5
Reference
Boyatzis, R. E. 2008. Competencies in the 21st century. Journal of management
development, 27(1), 5-12.
Canals, J. 2014. Global leadership development, strategic alignment and CEOs commitment.
Journal of Management Development, 33(5), 487-502.
Casey, C. 2013. 2 New Organizational Cultures and Ethical EmploymentPractice 1 A
CriticalDiscussion. Business Ethics in Theory and Practice: Contributions from Asia
and New Zealand, 13.
Chin, M. K., Hambrick, D. C., & Treviño, L. K. 2013. Political Ideologies of CEOs The
Influence of Executives’ Values on Corporate Social Responsibility. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 58(2), 197-232.
Nienaber, H. 2010. Conceptualisation of management and leadership. Management Decision,
48(5), 661-675.
