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Differences between Leader and Manager and Their Roles in an Organization

A manager is a person responsible for planning and directing the works of individuals, supervising their works, and taking corrective actions when it is so required. A leader has been defined as a person or a thing that holds a dominant or superior position within its field and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others (Business Dictionary- 2008).A generally accepted consensus is that a manager must possess technical and logistical skills, but a leader must have people skills. A manager, no matter whether he is a manager in a government or business organization, may have obtained his position through time and efforts put into the organization, but not as a result of his leadership qualities.Raimo P H (2007) observes that the distinction between manager and leader is besides prominent also ambiguous. While a manager is seen as an ‘operator’, ‘technician’, ‘fixer’, and ‘problem solver’, a leader is perceived as a ‘visionary’, ‘prophet’, catalyst, and ‘mover-shaker’ (Raimo P Hamalainem-p 83). Manager, as compared to the leader, is more administration and tool oriented.A manager’s scope of activities and functions is regarded to be quite comprehensive than that of a leader. Some managers are high-quality leaders, but same time others only manage resources and are not capable of leading their subordinates. Thus, leadership is a subcategory of the management concept that focuses basically on behavioral issues. To be more specific, all managers are not necessarily leaders, but the most effective managers may have leadership qualities. Good managers always tend to be good leaders, but good leaders are not always good managers.Leadership is the process of guiding the behavior of others towards organizational objectives. The leader in a business organization causes subordinates to behave in a particular manner and to follow a specific set of instructions through his guiding.