(a) Identify key differences between a manager and a leader. Justify your answer with suitable examples. (10 marks) (b) What are…

(a) Manager and leader

Kotter separates management, which copes with complexity through planning, budgeting, organising and control, from leadership, which copes with change through direction, alignment and inspiration. Zaleznik saw managers as seekers of order and leaders as tolerant of ambiguity. Bennis put it as "managers do things right, leaders do the right thing".

• Focus: execution and efficiency against vision and transformation.
• Power: positional and legitimate against personal and referent.
• Risk: predictability against challenging the status quo.
• People: transactional direction against transformational coaching.
• Horizon: quarterly targets against long-term direction.

Examples: a plant head at Tata Steel who raises furnace throughput within cost limits is managing. Ratan Tata pursuing Corus (2007) and Jaguar Land Rover (2008) against market doubt was leading. Effective executives such as Satya Nadella combine both.

(b) Four approaches to management

1. Scientific management (Taylor): time and motion study, standard methods and differential piece rates. Limitation: treats workers as "economic man". Example: standard operating procedures on Maruti Suzuki assembly lines.
2. Administrative management (Fayol): five functions (planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, controlling) and 14 principles such as unity of command and scalar chain. Limitation: rigid and assumes a stable, closed setting. Example: the zonal hierarchy of Indian Railways.
3. Human relations (Mayo): the Hawthorne studies showed that recognition, group norms and informal groups drive output. Limitation: neglects structure, economics and the market. Example: employee welfare councils in large Indian groups.
4. Systems and contingency (von Bertalanffy, Fiedler): the firm is an open system, and there is "no one best way", since practice depends on technology, environment and task. Limitation: hard to apply in real time given many variables. Example: IT firms switching between waterfall and agile delivery by client.

(c) Classical and operant conditioning, and social learning

• Classical (Pavlov): an involuntary reflex becomes linked to a neutral stimulus through pairing, with the stimulus coming before the response and the learner passive, as in the "Little Albert" study.
• Operant (Skinner): voluntary behaviour is shaped by its consequences through positive or negative reinforcement and punishment, with the consequence following the response and the learner active.

Social learning theory (Bandura) extends operant learning:

• people learn by observing models and their consequences (vicarious reinforcement), without direct reinforcement, as the Bobo doll study showed,
• learning passes through attention, retention, reproduction and motivation, which adds cognition to behaviourism, and
• self-efficacy and reciprocal determinism among person, behaviour and environment allow self-regulation.

(d) Three approaches to managing change

1. Lewin’s three steps: unfreeze by exposing gaps and weakening restraining forces, change by introducing new behaviours and systems, and refreeze through rewards, policies and culture. Banks moving branch customers to digital platforms follow this path.
2. Kotter’s eight steps: urgency, a guiding coalition, vision, communication, empowerment, short-term wins, consolidation and anchoring in culture. ITC used a clear vision and empowered divisional heads in diversifying beyond cigarettes into FMCG, paperboards and hotels.
3. Action research: a cycle of diagnosis, analysis, feedback, joint action and evaluation, which builds ownership and reduces resistance.

Change agents and quick wins help firms meet the "change or die" pressure.

(e) Signals of training need and overseas training

Signals: falling output or quality and missed service levels, new technology causing bottlenecks, rising customer complaints, safety or compliance lapses, and behavioural signs such as absenteeism, friction and turnover. Appraisal results often confirm the gap.

Training for overseas assignments:

• Cross-cultural training, using Hofstede’s dimensions such as power distance and individualism, to prevent ethnocentrism and culture shock,
• language skills for daily life and trust,
• business etiquette and negotiation norms, such as guanxi in China and nemawashi in Japan,
• family and spouse preparation, since family maladjustment is a leading cause of expatriate failure,
• legal, tax and security briefings, and
• repatriation training to handle reverse culture shock.