Public Policy & Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Public Policy & Administration - Essay Example For a better distinction between the two, leadership is defined as the process whereby, a leader influences his/her followers to achieve a common goal (Bertocci 5). Management is the act of exercising administrative and supervisory duties of a group or an organisation. It is apparent that due to continued innovation and competition, organisations, and groups need both effective managers and leaders in order to have successful operations. In this regard, leadership and management are similar in several ways. Firstly, they both argued to influence employees or constituents in a particular manner. For example, team leader with leadership qualities can be able to lead his/her group in a successful way. In most cases, studies have found that leaders with no leadership qualities tend to influence their followers in the way that results in low performance and incompetence. Similarly, a good manager with managerial skills tends to influence his/her group in a way that results into top result s, as opposed to when the group manager would be incompetent, and the results are poor performance due to lack of proper coordination (Bertocci 7). In both leadership and management, authority and power are manifested in both. ... Differences between leadership and management Even though there are similarities between the two, there are striking differences between the two. Firstly, management is often task oriented while leadership is considered to be more inspirational and visionary (Bertocci 9). In addition, management involves planning and budgeting, while leadership involves establishing direction. While management entails the establishment of agendas, leadership entails creating a vision. It is also apparent that management involves setting timetables, while leadership involves clarifying the big picture. In management, what follows setting timetables is the allocation of resources required to accomplish tasks while, in leadership, clarification of the big picture is followed by setting strategies. On another dimension, as management engages in organizing and staffing, leadership engages in aligning people. Management also involves the establishment of rules and procedures, while leadership involves buil ding teams and coalitions. In this regard, management seeks making job placement, while leadership seeks commitment. Another major difference is that, in management, controlling and problem solving is apparent, while motivating and inspiration is apparent in leadership (Bertocci 10). Section II Policy analysis Describe and identify at least one example of the ideological conflict many Americans have with their negative attitude toward the idea of a large and active government, but positive desire to provide individual, public programs such as education and health programs like Medicare. Mainly, large governments are associated with corruption and inefficiency. Many Americans have a