Management vs Leadership

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (Peter Drucker). What does this mean and to what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion?

Introduction

Nowadays, there are a lot of debates regarding which are the best solutions to solve the financial crisis. One of these controversial topics is if the society needs good leaders, good managers or even both of them. For instance, Srivastava & Sinha (2007) argue that due to the increasing global competition, effective managers are necessary to run the day-to-day operations in their companies. On the other hand, Parry & Bryman (2006) emphasize that leadership is very important in both organizational and everyday affairs. However, there are authors like Zaleznik (1977) who explains that although managers and leaders are two different animals, companies need both of them to excel.

As we have already seen, a lot of studies, researches and definitions have been done in order to study and differentiate management and leadership, but probably, one of the most world famous quotes related to this topic is: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (Peter Drucker, 1955). The purpose of this paper is to analyse the veracity of this statement, by breaking down this quote in two parts. First of all, I am going to focus in management, then I am going to talk about leadership and finally, I will compare the two terms and I will provide arguments to support the veracity of Drucker’s quote.

The evolution of management

The term “management” has been used for more than a century and its meaning has evolved during all this time. One of the first contributions to this field is the division of labour stated by Adam Smith (2005) in the XVIII century, where the workers of an organization are allocated in different and repetitive tasks in order to improve the productivity of the company. In the same thread of thought, Frederick Taylor in the 1911 defined...