Each person in a company brings his or her own experiences, values, and beliefs to the company. All the experiences, values, and beliefs combined formulate the organizational culture of the company. A sick organizational culture can cause failure in a company. In a company with a healthy organizational culture employees work together to ensure the company reaches its goals. Leadership and management have a vital role in ensuring the organizational culture within a company is healthy.
Each company has a vision. A leader helps others to see the vision and inspire them to make the vision reality. Bateman and Snell (2007) assert that leadership is ineffective without a vision. Employees or teams can establish a vision for jobs or an organization. Many people are more focused on carrying out his or her duties each day. Even some managers do not have a clear vision. When looking at an organization’s culture, one sees the motivation given employees to achieve the organization’s goals.
Tarkovsky (2006) states four characteristics are found in good leaders: they believe in open communication, they do not stick with the status quo, they are selective in what they measure, and they have passion for values and culture. Each characteristic is essential to a healthy organizational culture. When an employee feels she has open communication with a leader, she is more inclined to share if problems arise whether or not work related. Non-work related issues may eventually take a toll on an employee’s performance at work. However, with open communication, an employee feels comfortable in apprising the leader of a situation so that future problems are avoided.
Not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers. Possibly the biggest difference between management and leadership is people skills. In determining if a person is a leader or a manager, Bova (2008) lists some differences with which many a person would agree. One difference is that a manager directs...