Week 6: Introduction

　　　 As long as human is human, people make families, groups, and societies. In other words, people live with people. In that sense, the concept “Leadership” has always been with human history. It can be dated back to ancient times such as argument of aristocracy made by Plato. “The Prince” by Machiavelli written in 16th Century, is also one of the most notable books regarding this theme. At 18th Century, the time when industrial revolution emerged, the fundamental structure of human society started to change. Unlimited arguments can be made regarding this age. The point relevant to the theme of this paper is, this was the very time where the concept of “Management” was given its birth (Bjerke 1999). These days, this word is mostly used in a business sphere. Numerous books regarding management have been published every year. One thing which is interesting is in these books the word “Leadership” and “Management” are often used as synonyms, or sometimes the implication of the word “Management” includes the concept of “Leadership”.

When we look back at the historical background of these two words, there is a distinct  fundamental difference in the essential concept of each word. It is predictable that this difference between the notion of leadership and management has a lot to do with the difference in the form of human aggregation between modern period and pre-modern period. It seems that being aware of the difference in leadership and management is useful and necessary for today’s leaders in terms of awareness of the difference prompts carefulness for both, neither can be forgotten,  and carefulness prevents forgetting.

This paper aims to clarify first, the difference between the concept “Leadership” and “Management” by tracing back the historical background of each. Next, it will explain the change of the form of human aggregation by mainly dealing with the Max Weber’s argument. Then, merging these two parts by setting the chapter that argues the difference between Leadership and Management. Chapter Ⅵ, the last chapter, will try to establish the lessons for today’s leaders followed by concrete case studies.