Five perspectives on the leadership-management relationship: A competency-based evaluation and integration

How management and leadership are best conceptualized with respect to each other has been a frequent topic of debate. Five distinct perspectives are identified in the literature, including bipolar, unidimensional, bidimensional, hierarchical-management within leadership, and hierarchical-leadership within management. We assessed the viability of these perspectives by having Academy of Management and Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology experts (N = 43) map a comprehensive set of 63 managerial and leadership competencies, as a "common language," onto defined and undefined management and leadership dimensions. Results reveal interpretable patterns of uniqueness and overlap, suggesting a hybrid co-dimensional/bidimensional configuration. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in light of the precedence of "what" over "how" in developing leadership and management theory.