Leading Human Resources: An Analysis (part 3)

Management: An Applied Behavioral Sciences Approach (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

A Look Back

The transformation of American society has been amazing. We have progressed from a basically agrarian society to a dynamic industrial society, with a higher level of education and standard of living than was ever thought possible. In addition, our society and technical advancement staggers the imagination.

This progress has not been without its seamy side. At a time when we should be rejoicing in a golden age of plenty, we find ourselves embroiled in conflict---conflict between nations, conflict between races, conflict between managers and workers, even conflict between neighbors. These problems that we face cannot be solved by scientific and technical skills alone; they will require social skills. Many of our most critical problems are not in the world of things, but in the world of people. Our greatest failure as human beings has been the inability to secure cooperation and understanding with others. Shortly after World War II, Elton Mayo recognized this problem when he reflected that "the consequences for society of the unbalance between the development of technical and social skills have been disastrous."

Management Defined

Any review of the literature will quickly show that there are almost as many definitions of management as there are writers in the field. A common thread that appears in these definitions is that the manager is required to accomplish organizational goals or objectives. We shall define  management as the process of working with and through individuals and groups and other resources (such as equipment, capital, and technology) to accomplish organizational goals.

This definition, it should be noted, does not specify business or industrial organizations. Management, as defined, applies to organizations whether they are businesses, educational institutions, hospitals, political or military organizations, or even families. To be successful, these organizations require their management personnel to have interpersonal skills. The achievement of organizational objectives through leadership is management. Thus, everyone is a manager in at least certain activities.

Leadership Defined

In essence, leadership is a broader concept than management. Management is a special kind of leadership in which the achievement of organizational goals is paramount. The important distinction between the two, therefore, lies in the term organizational goals. Our definition of leadership is that leadership occurs whenever one person attempts to influence the behavior of an individual or a group, regardless of the reason. It may be for one's own goals or the goals of others, and these goals may or may not be congruent with organizational goals.

Distinctions Between Management and Leadership

Warren Bennis, a highly regarded leadership scholar, differentiated the extremes of management and leadership in a number of provocative ways:

Leaders conquer the context---the volatile, turbulent, ambiguous surroundings that sometimes seem to conspire against us and will surely suffocate us if we let them---while managers surrender to it. The manager administrates; the leader innovates. The manager is a copy; the leader is an original. The manager maintains; the leader develops. The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people. The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. The manager has an eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon. The manager initiates; the leader originates. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it. . . . Managers do things right; leaders do the right things.

Are Management and Leadership Really Necessary?

Perhaps concerns felt by people are such that leadership and management cannot effect change or solve problems. Let's look at one study, in which 500 respondents in a variety of organizations were asked to rank their concerns. The results are listed in Table 1.

Table 1 Top Ten Leadership and Management Concerns

Every concern is the result of ineffective leadership and management, and can be corrected by enlightened leadership and management. This brings us to a central theme of this analysis. The effective management of human organizations comes down to the one-on-one or one-on-a-group influence process. Performance starts with this essential building block.

RHI Management Resources, a division of Robert Half International, Inc., initiated a national survey of executives with the United States' 1000 largest companies. The executives were asked, "Which of the following management skills do you believe to be the most valuable?" The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Valuable Management Skills

Cecil Gregg, executive director of RHI Management Resorces, observed, "Today's growth economy has businesses moving rapidly to keep up with expansion efforts . . . amid this environment, leadership skills are critical.

Peter Drucker, one of the most influential and respected observers of management, confirms our view.

The center of a modern society is the managed institution. The managed institution is society's way of getting things done these days. In addition, management is the specific tool, the specific function, and the specific instrument to make institutions capable of producing results.

The institution, in short, does not simply exist within and react to society. It exists to produce results on and in society.

Are Leaders Born or Made?

Whether leadership can be learned is an issue that has perplexed researchers for decades and one that has important implications for the readers of this blog. If leaders are born, why spend time reading and developing your skills? Your leadership success or failure has already been determined. If leaders are made, then everyone can become a leader, and there is hope for us all. As Jay Conger suggests, "These perspectives are quite different, and their implications for the training and development of leaders are profoundly different. If leadership ability is genetically determined, training could hardly play a role in its development. But if leadership is learned through experience, training might well be used to develop new skills and to help synthesize past experiences into useful insights.

My position, and that of almost all other leadership researchers as well, is that leaders are both born and made, particularly within the broad context of leadership that is covered in this analysis. In a later post, we will discuss some of the traits that may contribute to and facilitate leader effectiveness, such as intelligence, physical energy, and social potential. But formal and informal experience also play a critical role; in particular, "Work experience, hardship, opportunity, education, role models, and mentors all go together to craft a leader." Learning and practicing the leadership skills presented in this analysis will enhance every potential leader's effectiveness.

To be continued...

*SOURCE: MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: LEADING HUMAN RESOURCES, 8TH ED., 2001, PAUL HERSEY, KENNETH H. BLANCHARD, DEWEY E. JOHNSON, PGS. 8-11*

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