Leadership and Management CPA Revision Kit (Question and Answer)

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TOPIC 1

 INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

 QUESTION 1

December 2025 Question Two A

Explain FIVE strategic differences between leadership and management.  (5 marks)

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Five strategic differences between leadership and management:

  1. Vision vs. Execution
  • Leadership (Setting the “What” and “Why”): Leaders are visionaries who focus on the “big picture.” They look toward the horizon to determine the organization’s future direction and purpose.
  • Management (Setting the “How” and “When”): Managers are executors. They take the leader’s vision and translate it into actionable plans, budgets, and specific timelines to ensure the goal is reached.
  1. Change vs. Stability
  • Leadership (Driving Transformation): Leadership is about coping with change. Leaders challenge the status quo, encourage innovation, and navigate the organization through uncertainty.
  • Management (Maintaining Order): Management is about coping with complexity. Managers strive for stability, consistency, and efficiency. They implement systems and controls to minimize risk and ensure day-to-day operations run smoothly.
  1. Influence vs. Authority
  • Leadership (Personal Power): A leader’s ability to lead comes from influence. They inspire people to follow them because of their character, passion, or ideas. Leaders have followers.
  • Management (Positional Power): A manager’s ability to direct comes from their formal authority or rank within the organizational hierarchy. They have the power to reward or discipline. Managers have subordinates.
  1. Long-Term vs. Short-Term Horizon
  • Leadership (Future-Oriented): Leaders focus on long-term sustainability and growth. They are concerned with where the organization will be in 5 to 10 years and are willing to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term strategic positioning.
  • Management (Present-Oriented): Managers focus on short-term results, such as meeting quarterly targets, managing current budgets, and completing immediate tasks. Their success is often measured by “here and now” performance metrics.
  1. Aligning People vs. Organizing Staff
  • Leadership (Creating Buy-in): Leaders align people by communicating a compelling vision that connects individual work to a higher purpose. They focus on building culture and empowering individuals.
  • Management (Allocating Resources): Managers organize staff by creating structures, defining job roles, and delegating specific tasks. They focus on staffing, training, and providing the tools necessary to complete the job efficiently.

 

QUESTION 2

August 2025 Question Four A

Explain FIVE characteristics of effective administration.  (5 marks)

 MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

FIVE characteristics of effective administration

  1. Clear Communication: Effective administration relies on clear, concise, and timely communication. This means ensuring that information flows accurately and efficiently in all directions – from leadership to staff, between departments, and even upwards from employees. When communication is clear, everyone understands their roles, responsibilities, and objectives, which reduces misunderstandings, prevents errors, and fosters a collaborative environment.
  2. Efficiency and Productivity: An hallmark of good administration is its ability to achieve desired outcomes with minimal waste of time, effort, or resources. This involves streamlining processes, optimizing workflows, and eliminating redundancies. Efficient administration ensures that tasks are completed promptly and effectively, allowing the organization to maximize its output and achieve its goals with greater speed and less cost.
  3. Accountability and Transparency: Effective administration involves establishing clear lines of accountability, where individuals and teams understand who is responsible for what and are answerable for their actions and outcomes. Equally important is transparency, which means operations, decisions, and performance are open to scrutiny. This builds trust, encourages ethical behavior, and ensures that the organization is acting in the best interests of its stakeholders.
  4. Adaptability and Flexibility: The administrative landscape is constantly changing. Therefore, effective administration must be adaptable and flexible. This means being able to adjust plans, processes, and strategies in response to new challenges, opportunities, or shifts in the internal or external environment. Organizations that can pivot quickly and effectively are better equipped to navigate uncertainty and maintain their effectiveness.
  5. Ethical Conduct and Integrity: Underpinning all administrative functions is the commitment to ethical conduct and integrity. This involves adhering to moral principles, legal standards, and organizational values in all decisions and actions. Ethical administration ensures fairness, builds trust, upholds the organization’s reputation, and promotes a positive work environment where employees feel respected and valued.

 

QUESTION 3

April 2025 Question Two A

Explain the term “administration”.

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Administration refers to the process of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling resources (such as people, finances, and information) to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively.

 

QUESTION 4

April 2025 Question Three A

Summarise FIVE roles of middle level managers in an organisation.  (5 marks)

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Roles of middle level managers in an organisation

  1. Implementing Organisational Policies: Middle managers translate top-level strategies into actionable plans for lower-level employees.
  2. Supervising and Coordinating Departments: They oversee various departments or teams, ensuring activities align with overall goals.
  3. Liaising between Top and Lower Management: They act as a communication bridge, conveying directives from senior managers and feedback from subordinates.
  4. Motivating and Developing Staff: Middle managers are responsible for motivating teams, resolving conflicts, and facilitating employee development.
  5. Monitoring Performance and Reporting: They track departmental performance, prepare reports, and recommend improvements to top management.

 

 QUESTION 5

August 2024 Question Two A

Describe FIVE factors that are reshaping and redefining management in modern day organisations. (5 marks)

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Five factors reshaping and redefining management in modern day organizations:

  1. Technological advancements: The rapid pace of technological change has significantly impacted the way organizations operate, requiring managers to adapt to new tools, processes, and ways of working.
  2. Globalization: Increased globalization has created a more interconnected world, necessitating managers to understand different cultures, markets, and regulatory environments.
  3. Demographic shifts: Changing demographics, such as aging populations and increased diversity, have created new challenges and opportunities for organizations, requiring managers to adapt their leadership styles and strategies.
  4. Economic uncertainty: Economic instability and volatility have made it more difficult for organizations to predict and plan for the future, requiring managers to be more agile and adaptable.
  5. Climate change and sustainability: Growing concerns about climate change and sustainability have placed new demands on organizations to adopt environmentally friendly practices and contribute to a more sustainable future.

 

QUESTION 6

April 2024 Question Two B

Explain FIVE features of management.  (10 marks)

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Features of Management

  1. Management is complex: Management involves dealing with a variety of activities and variables. Some of the variables are interrelated while others are heterogeneous. Some management variables are within the control of the entity’s’ management yet other variables are beyond their control. Environmental uncertainty further complicates the management process. The fact that management involves making constant changes to activities, decisions and strategies causes management to be a complex process.
  2. Management is universal: Management is practiced in virtually all productive organizations; whether public sector or private sector, profit making or non-profit making, large or small, domestic or multinational enterprise. There are also universal fundamental management principles that are applied in management and in addition managers at all levels perform the same basic functions.
  3. Management is goal Oriented: Management is not a random process but purposeful. The process of management is geared towards attainment of specified organizational goals.
  4. Management is a social process: A social process refers to forms of social interaction that occur repeatedly. Management is concerned with developing various relationships among people. Management is also done by people, through people and for people. It touches all aspects of human activities
  5. Management is an integrative process: Management involves synchronizing individual organizational members’ objectives and departmental objectives with those of the rest of the organization, It involves synchronizing the activities of the different units of the enterprise.
  6. Management is concerned with productivity: Productivity is a function of efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is n interned with using the minimum amount of resources to achieve the desired ends. Effectiveness on the other hand is doing the right thing at the right lime and achieving
  7. Management is a continuous process: Management is a never-ending process as long as the entity is in existence. All the functions of management are performed continuously.
  8. Management is Multidisciplinary: Management draws from a variety of disciplines such as; finance, engineering, sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology and others.
  9. Management is a Composite process: Management consists of series of functions which must be performed in n proper sequence. These’ functions are inter-dependent. As the main functions of management are planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling; organizing cannot be done without doing planning, similarly, directing function cannot be executed without staffing and planning and it is difficult to control the activities of employees without knowing the plan. All the functions inter-dependent on each other that is why management is considered as a composite process of all these functions.
  10. Management is Pervasive: Management is not confined to one or a few aspects of the organization rather every aspect of an enterprise requires management and is affected by management.
  11. Management is distinct from ownership: In principles of good governance practices, management is divorced from ownership. For practical reasons all the owners of the organisation for instance a listed company cannot manage the organisation. For this reason, the organisation is entrusted to salaried professionals who manage the organisation to ensure that the goals of the owners arc attained.
  12. Management is an Art as well as Science: Management is both an art and a science. It is an art as it involves application of practical knowledge to solve practical problems. It is a science as it has an organized body of – knowledge which contains certain universal truths and an art as managing requires certain skills which apply more or less in every situation
  13. Management is a dynamic function: Management is practiced in a dynamic environment that is not static. This implies that constant changes have to be made to align the organization to the changes’ in the environment.
  14. Management is Intangible: Management function cannot be physically seen but its presence can be felt. The presence of management can be felt by seeing the orderliness and coordination in the working environment. It is easier to feel the presence of mismanagement as it leads to chaos and confusion in the organization.

QUESTION 7

April 2022 Question Four A

Examine three skills required by managers at different levels of management. (6 marks)

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Skills required by managers at different levels of management

  1. Conceptual skills: Conceptual skills refer to the ability think in abstract and to visualize the organization in a holistic manner. These skills enable a manager to see the relationship between forces in the environment that other people cannot see. It is the ability to think creatively and understand complicated or abstract ideas. These skills are critically important to the top-level management since the top management is responsible for positioning the entity as a whole strategically in its external environment. They also responsible for formulating the vision and the long-term goals of the enterprise as a whole. These responsibilities imply that the managers should be able to see beyond time and space. The conceptual skills are moderately important to the mid-level managers and less important to the lower level managers.
  2. Diagnostic skills: Diagnostic skills refer to the ability to understand and interpret the underlying issues beneath a phenomenon and to draw answers from the underlying issues. The skills are critically important to the top-level managers, moderately important to the mid-level managers and less important to the lower level managers.
  3. Technical skills: Technical skills refer to the proficiency in handling the techniques of a given trade such as accounting techniques, engineering techniques and others. Technical skills are the knowledge and capabilities to perform field-specific, specialized tasks. They are practical, and often relate to mechanical, information technology, mathematical, or scientific tasks.
  4. Human relation skills/interpersonal skills/soft management skills: Human relations skills relate to the ability to deal with and work with other people. it is the ability to build up cooperative, work teams, secure cooperation of staff and to handle diversity. The manager needs to know how to manage relationships between himself and his subordinates, as well as manage the relationships among those who work under him. The manager should also know how to develop relationships with his superiors, and coordinate relationships across the hierarchy. The manager should to be able to build good relationships with customers, and see things from the customers’ perspective.
  5. Political skills: Political skills relate to the ability to have your own way without appearing to be egotistic or self- centered. It is the ability to get your own share of power and use it without fear of losing it. These skills will enable a manager to establish the rigid connections then skillfully use these connections for the advantage of the firm.
  6. Communication skills: This is the ability to communicate effectively. Management involves working with people and through people. In addition, managers are the conduits of all communication flows in and out the organization. It is therefore important for managers to had exemplary communication skills. Some of these communication skills include: listening ability; empathize, communicate precisely and concisely as well as provide information on a timely basis.

 

QUESTION 8

December 2021 Question Five B

Analyse four arguments against management as a profession.  (4 marks)

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Arguments against management as a profession

  1. A profession is based on an approved body of knowledge which requires rigorous intellectual training which takes a considerable period of time. Hence management is not a profession.
  2. Professions typically require a significant period of hands-on, practical experience in the protected company of senior members before an individual is recognized as a professional. After this provisional period, continuous education toward professional development is a mandatory requirement hence management is not a profession.
  3. Entry into a profession is restricted by an association of members, membership of which is restricted to people with common training and attitude thus management is not a, profession.
  4. In a profession the emphasis on service to others. In relation to this, a professional involves great responsibility. Professionals deal with matters of vital significance to their clients and are hence entrusted with great responsibilities and obligations. Professionals therefore owe a duty of care to their clients, breach of which can cause grave damage to the client. Arising from the duty of care is accountability, Professionals are personally accountable for the quality of their work with the client. Management may not quite fit in this perspective of a profession as it does not focus on service to others but rather it involves manipulating the organizational resources with a view of optimize their use in order to maximize profits and achieve other organizational goals.
  5. In a profession there is a code of ethics that regulates the behavior of the members of the profession thus management is not a profession.
  6. A profession maintains an experimental attitude towards information and is constantly in search of new information through research and practice. Thus, management is not a profession

 

QUESTION 9

What are the four managerial functions and how do they interrelate with each other?

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

The four managerial functions are:-

a) Planning – (Decision making, looking ahead). It is the determining of organisation’s goals and deciding how best to achieve them. Managers think through their goals and actions in advance, that their actions are based on some method, plan or logic, rather than on a hunch. It is the basis by which:-

  • The organisation obtains and commits the resources required to attain its objectives
  • Members of the organisation carry on activities consistent with the chosen objectives and procedures.
  • Progress towards the objective is monitored and measured so that corrective action can be taken where such progress is unsatisfactory.

 

b) Organising – (harnessing, combining, co-ordinating resources). While planning provides the framework in terms of organisational goals, organising refers to the process of arranging and allocating work, authority and resources among an organisation’s members so that they can achieve the organisation’s goals effectively and efficiently.

  • It entails setting or designing the organisational structure that suits the organisation in terms of its resources and gaols. Students will note organising should necessarily follow after planning.
  • Management cannot organise without any idea as to the purpose of such an exercise, thus tasks and positions are allocated after an organisation has established its direction (planning)
  • The organisational structure defines the reporting levels within an organisation and provides a hierarchy of formal positions

 

c) Leading: – (Directing, supervising, overseeing, guiding, motivating). This entails directing, influencing and motivating the task related activities and efforts of organisational members to achieve set goals of an organisation.

The leadership function is distinct from planning in that it involves dealing with people. It should be borne in mind that leading function necessarily follows after organising. Managers are given authority and responsibility as well as confirmation of their levels in the company through that organisation function. It should therefore follow that you cannot effectively lead without knowing:

Who to lead? Where you belong in terms of the various departments of the organisation. How much authority is bestowed upon you, and finally. Who you report to in the organisational hierarchy.

 d) Controlling :- (Monitoring, Evaluating, Checking, Making sure). This process is the ultimate management function and it evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of the other management functions. The control function is concerned with ensuring that the action s of the organisation’s members does move the organisation towards its stated goals.

It is sometimes referred to as the process of monitoring progress towards achievement of goals. The controlling function entails:-

  • Establishing standards of performance and how it will be measured
  • Measuring current performance
  • Comparing actual with standard performance, and
  • Taking corrective action where deviations from stated goals are detected.

Through the control function, the manager keeps the organisation on its chosen track through timorously investigating and correcting and deviations from set standards

 

QUESTION 10

Explain three ways of classifying managers

 

MASOMO MSINGI ANSWER

Ways of classifying managers

a) Managers can be classified by management levels were we have:-

  • First line managers also known as operations managers or just line managers. These are responsible for the work of employees only and as such do not supervise any managers. They are the lowest management level in the organisational hierarchy, being directly responsible for the supervision of non-managerial staff. First line managers’ activities tend to focus mainly on the day to day running of the organisation and they focus on the activities of sub-units such as departments and sections thereof.

Typical titles of first line managers are: foreman, supervisor, operations managers etc

  • Middle managers (also known as tactical managers or management control level). This may incorporate more than one level in the organisation. They are primarily concerned with directing the operations of lower level management. In addition they are also responsible for implementing and interpreting the policies formulated by the top management level. Thus they are intermediaries between top management and lower level management.

Typical titles include: Branch managers, Regional managers, senior managers etc.

  • Top management (also known as strategic managers or corporate level managers). Top managers probably account for a relatively small group of executives who control the organisation. They are thus responsible for establishing the organisation’s goals, strategies and operating policies. In addition, they also represent the organisation to the external environment e.g. by meeting with government officials, other business executives, other institutional heads etc.

Activities undertaken at this level are thus of a long term nature and mainly guide the organisation’s conduct with the environment. They tend to focus on the organisation as a whole, with emphasis on both the present and the future scale of operations

Typical titles are: Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, and General Manager etc.

 

b) Management can also be classified according to the scope of activities

  • Functional Managers- These are responsible for just one speciality organisational activity e.g. the finance manager (responsible for finance) and the human resources managers (responsible for the human resource function) this level of management may be likened to that of operational management for they are also responsible for the day to day running of the organisation as well as the direct supervision of subordinates.

The people headed by a functional manager are engaged in a common set of activities

  • General Managers. Unlike functional managers, general managers oversee the complex units e.g. subsidiaries or independent operating divisions. In this case they will be responsible for all the activities of that unit such as marketing, production etc. Thus the general manager will be in charge of the functional managers falling under his sub-unit or division.

 

QUESTION 11

State and explain three managerial roles as identified by Henry Mintzberg. Clearly identify how each is subdivided.

 

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