Management Versus Leadership: A Key Theoretical Distinction

Leaders and managers are not the same. Management and leadership have been used differently by researchers, scholars and practitioners, on one hand as synonymous terms, and, on the other, as two completely different words. This paper attempts to elucidate the differences between leadership and management, to show that management and leadership are two distinct functions that do share many similar duties, like working with people and influencing others to achieve goals. The purpose is launched under the broad topics of definitional complexities, conceptual distinctions, behavioral differences and functional divergence. The paper also discusses the intersections of the roles of leaders and managers. They apply different conceptualizations and approaches to work, exercise different ways of problem solving, undertake different functions in the organizations, and exhibit different behaviors owing to their different intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.