I believe that management can be studied and refined to a science. You can study what other great managers do, you can read the latest "how to" book to polish your skills and learn how to manage or handle a particular situation. Leadership on the other hand is a very different matter. A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about Managers vs. Leaders and he made what I thought was quite a profound statement. "Managers take a situation and find a way to fix the problem; Leaders see the situation before it ever becomes a problem."
True Leadership is an art. One that cannot be taught or studied, but only learned Through mistakes as a "manager" and years of trial and error, you discover what your talents are and what you have to offer your team as well as your peers. You discover what your team needs from you to become successful and you find a way to take them there. A manager will use their tried and true methods with each new set of employees they encounter, but a Leader will never steer his people to greatness the same way twice.
I believe that management is absolutely an art. Almost one can learn how to be a manager but the art of it is to become a "Great Manager". So, i strongly believe that management is a pure art. And it brings this management as a science to an art form.
Management can be considered as both science as well as an art.
Management is Science because of several reasons like - it has universally accepted principles, it has cause and effect relationship etc, and at the same time it is art because it requires perfection through practice, practical knowledge, creativity, personal skills etc.
Management is both an art and a science. Management combines features of both science as well as art. It is considered as a science because it has an organized body of knowledge which contains certain universal truth. It is called an art because managing requires certain skills which are personal possessions of managers. Science provides the knowledge & art deals with the application of knowledge and skills.
A manager to be successful in his profession must acquire the knowledge of science & the art of applying it. Therefore management is a judicious blend of science as well as an art because it proves the principles and the way these principles are applied is a matter of art. Science teaches to ‘know’ and art teaches to ‘do’. E.g. A person cannot become a good singer unless he has knowledge about various ragas & he also applies his personal skill in the art of singing. Same way it is not sufficient for manager to first know the principles but he must also apply them in solving various managerial problems that is why, science and art are not mutually exclusive but they are complementary to each other (like tea and biscuit, bread and butter etc.).
The old saying that “Manager are Born” has been rejected in favor of “Managers are Made”. It has been aptly remarked that management is the oldest of art and youngest of science. To conclude, we can say that science is the root and art is the fruit.
