Management and Leadership
Stacy Parks
MGT/330
06December2010
Dr. Nick Sherwin
Management and Leadership
Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Under Mr. Walton’s leadership Wal-Mart has quickly grown to one of the most successful companies of its time. It has also been able to extend throughout America and international markets (Wal-Mart, 2007-2008).This great accomplishment was possible due to Mr. Walton’s attention to effective leadership and management policies and procedures. Wal-Mart’s constant pledge to value people throughout its leadership, management and organization has paved the way to the success of Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart, 2007-2008).
Management and leadership are two different concepts that complement each other. There are also differences between them. Leadership is to guide, inspire and motivate. Management is to direct, focus on systems, structures, and relies on control systems (Bateman & Snell, 2009). At times these skills are utilized separately, but more often in today’s business environment one must act as a manager and leader. Sam Walton recognized immediately that the most valuable assets of any organization are the people. Wal-Mart’s leadership ensures that they successfully serve their consumers, and employees. Mr. Walton’s motto is “Individuals don’t win; teams do” (Wal-Mart, 2010).
Leaders provide goals and directions while managers execute the ideas behind the visions and goals (Bateman & Snell, 2009). An individual who is acting as both leader and manager must be skilled enough to balance the two. Organizations cannot lead without management, if so employees will acquire a goal without direction on how to achieve it. Managing without leadership will result in employees questioning why they are doing certain tasks. A major difference between leadership and management is change .Leaders must initiate change or set new directions or goals. In any business atmosphere change is a difficult process....