ACCA BT Syllabus D. Leadership And Management - Terms Definition & Distinction - Notes ^{1 / 5}

Leadership

A basic definition of a leader is ‘someone who exercises influence over other people’. 

This can be expanded into a more complex definition: ‘Leadership is an interpersonal influence directed toward the achievement of a goal or goals’.

• Interpersonal – between people.

• Influence – the power to affect others.

• Goal – something that we need/want to achieve.

Leadership is a conscious activity and is concerned with setting goals and inspiring people to provide commitment to achieve the organisation’s goals.

The leader accepts responsibility for the accomplishment of group objectives.

S/he must discharge this responsibility to the satisfaction of the group; otherwise, there will be a loss of effectiveness.

The organisation of effective teamwork requires an acknowledgment by the leader that he cannot get results unaided; that s/he does not himself know all the answers.

Managers

All managers have in common the overall aim of getting things done, delegating to other people rather than doing everything themselves. 

It can be defined as ‘the effective use and coordination of resources such as capital, plant, materials and labour to achieve defined objectives with maximum efficiency’.

Management can be considered as:

1. Function 

   – the responsibility for directing and running an organisation

2. Process 

   – it incorporates activities by which internal and external resources are combined to achieve the objectives of the organisations.  These resources include people, money, machines and materials.

3. Discipline 

   – this is both an art and a science in the study of management

4. Profession

   - this position is achieved only after several years of study and advanced training and education.

Supervision

The supervisor is part of the management team.

• The supervisor is a person given authority for planning and controlling the work of their group, but all they can delegate to the group is the work itself.

• A supervisor, therefore, is a type of manager whose main role is to ensure that specified tasks are performed correctly and efficiently by a defined group of people.

• In general, supervisors will also be doing operations work and giving advice to others to help in solving problems. 

  If the more senior manager is absent, the supervisor will take over the role.

A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader.

If a manager is able to influence people to achieve the goals of the organisation, without using formal authority to do so, then the manager is demonstrating leadership.