With reference to selected management theories and drawing on specific examples, discuss why managers need to be aware of limitations and simplifications present in some of these theories.

Essay by alphawangUniversity, Master'sB, August 2008

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Introduction Throughout the history, leaders have always played crucial roles in wars, revolutions, demonstrations, protests and other important events. It is probably known by everyone that without a charismatic, ambitious and effective leader, who is able to attract the attention of people, to persuade and to make people follow them, none of these events would achieve any result. In the today's business world, nearly all of successful business organizations have be leaded by a powerful leader. In this essay, to help us understanding leadership critically; firstly, I will try to find out the definition of leadership, and discuss the differences between leaders and managers; then I will argue the leaders are born or made; at last the comparison of two leadership styles: autocratic and democratic style will be discussed.

Concept of leadership & Differences between leaders and managersDuring the last few years, leadership has emerged as an important subject all over the world.

This in fact is not just because of the substance of leadership in life, but also because leadership is a very complex process. Therefore, there are many theories which aim to recognize and analyses the concept of leadership. However, the great majority of these theories have both advantageous and disadvantages. As Stogdill, R.M. (1981) said: 'There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept' (p.7).Now, what is the best or the perfect concept of leadership?The answer without any doubt is very difficult. However, we will try to move through the most widespread definitions around the world. First, according to Donald Clark (1997), 'Leadership is a complex process by which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent'. This definition of...