Management and Leadership Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Management and Leadership Paper - Essay Example For instance, both leaders as well as managers are responsible for achieving similar organizational goals – that of steering the organization towards profitable goals; their tasks involve working in groups and managing people; along with other similar shared traits and responsibilities. According to Richard Daft, "leadership cannot replace management but rather is something that is to be practiced in addition to management" (in Prussakov, 2011). Warren Bennis, has listed various key differences between leadership and management which are discussed below: Managers are responsible for handling the day to day administration of the organization while leaders on the other hand are required to ‘lead’ through ‘innovation’. The management team at Nike is focused on innovation and creativity as a part of their strategic policies with a view to retain their competitive positioning in the market and retain their dominance. Hence, while the managers are entrusted with the responsibilities of handling the routine operations the leaders on the other hand, constantly seek to develop new ways to create and innovate their products. For instance, recently Nike developed a new app which uses the iPhone's GPS and mapping capabilities to track the performance of the athletes / runners. Furthermore, the app is moderately priced and connected directly to the company's website which helps the runners / users to share their running routes as well as time with everyone and post their results directly to popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook (NY times, 2010). The managers maintain stability while the leaders initiate change. The manager's task is to maintain and sustain the competitive positioning of the organization while the leader is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and expanding the organization. For instance as observed in the case of Nike, during its initial days, the company experienced rapid growth and began t o be known as a leading and fashionable sports brand during the 1990s. However by the end of the 1990s the growth began to stagnate, with the entry of new players in the market such as Adidas and Reebok along with several other smaller brands. One of the key marketing problems faced by Nike during these times was that the company had begun to lose its brand image, as fashionable footwear for teens, as older people increasingly began sporting Nike gear (i.e. clothing as well as footwear) (Porter et al., 2005). The managers, in this case were responsible to ensure that the company achieves its profit targets and maintains its stability however, the leaders on the other hand, were required to innovate and change the brand image to achieve its long term goals – that of long term sustainability in the market. Hence, as a result, the management at Nike changed its marketing strategy and targeted a younger market segment –the Californian teenager, to revamp its brand image. T he manager encourages and enhances the efficiency of the employees and groups while the leader