Project Leadership and Management Skills: A Comparative Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis comparing the roles, skills, and attributes of leaders and managers within the context of project management. The executive summary highlights the importance of both leadership and management in handling projects effectively, emphasizing the need for motivation and adaptability in the 21st-century business environment. The report explores the advantages and disadvantages of each role, focusing on their ability to cope with changes and resolve workplace issues. A literature review examines the differences between project leadership and management, favoring the leader's approach due to its focus on employee motivation, task assignment based on interest, and the fostering of team synergy. The discussion section further supports the leader's role in reducing staff turnover and adapting to external market changes, while contrasting it with the manager's focus on task completion. The report utilizes a case study method and data extraction from various journals to support its findings, highlighting the importance of project leadership in enhancing service quality, improving employee productivity, and adapting to evolving business needs.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The goals of this report are to clarify the skills comparison among the leader and manager
in handling a project in a suitable manner. The application of expertise and attributes of both the
individuals helps in dealing with a variety of the problems at the workplace. Motivation is the
common factor required in an entity in sustaining all the personnel for longer period in the
business. This report emphasizes on the entire positive as well as the negative aspect of a leader
and a manager in coping with the changes of 21st-century business environment. Management of
a particular project is not an easy task which requires determination power to survive in the core
difficulties and problems in improving its image in front of the external users1. This report
stresses on the flexibility ability of a project leader and manager in adapting with the changes
takes places in the business environment.
The scope of the current report is to ascertain the performance of an individual by
comparing the qualities and expertise of both the leader and a manager of a project. This
assignment considers the advantages and disadvantages of both the persons in deciding the best
suitable manner Management and leadership are two unique concepts whose importance has
explained in the current assignment. Leadership is that concept that helps in increasing
productivity of the business concern.2
The data collected in this research is related to the views and opinions of all the leaders’
and managers in the same entity to ascertain their qualities and skills in resolving an issue
utilizing its skills3. Case study method is used as an important tool in collecting data in this
1 Janice L., Dreachslin, Robert Weech-Maldonado, Judith Gail, Josué Patien Epané, and Joyce
Anne Wainio. "Blueprint for Sustainable Change in Diversity Management and Cultural
Competence: Lessons From the National Center for Healthcare Leadership Diversity
Demonstration Project." Journal of Healthcare Management. (2017). 62, no. 3 171-183.
2 Lavagnon A., Ika, and Jennifer Donnelly. "Success conditions for international development
capacity building projects." International Journal of Project Management. (2017). 35, no. 1 44-
63.
3 Vennebo, Kirsten Foshaug. "Innovative work in school development: Exploring leadership
enactment." Educational Management Administration & Leadership 45, no. 2 (2017): 298-315.

research by giving hypothetical situations to both the leader and managers to test their analytical
capability in resolving the issues exist in the corporation4. Deficiency of the management can be
resolved by implementing various leadership styles such as transformational leadership style in
which a leader will motivate its followers by offering monetary and non-monetary rewards to
complete the work before the stipulated deadline.5
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The current report is all about explaining the difference between the project leadership
and the role of management in handling and managing particular projects these two terms are
slightly related to each other as it depicts the skills and traits of an individual in showing their
attributes in managing a project. The research study stresses on the adjusting ability of the
project managers in utilizing all the tools and techniques of the 21st century that shows their
flexibility in changing the entire structure of the project with the changes takes places in the
external environment.6 The current study was based on the research question in which
comparison was made between the project leadership and project management skills and traits.
This report is related to the fulfilling of 21st century needs and expectations of an entity by
applying different leadership styles in managing all the personnel working on a single or more
than one project. The role of a leader is to create coordination among its workforce by assigning
all the tasks and duties to its employees according to their interest in sustaining all of them in the
same project for the longest time.7
4 Adelakun, Olayele, Robert Garcia, Ted Tabaka, and Redar Ismail. "Hybrid Project
Management: Agile with Discipline." (2017).
5 Petkova, Elisaveta P. And et.al."The American Preparedness Project: Where the US Public
Stands in 2015." (2016).
6 Alessandro, Laureani, and Jiju Antony. "Leadership characteristics for lean six sigma." Total
Quality Management & Business Excellence. (2017). 28, no. 3-4 405-426.

A focus of the report lies in proving the correctness of the research question by getting
reliable facts and figures related to the current stream. The author further commented on this
section that the condition of the modern generation with the event of the global financial crisis
that decreases all sources of income and also affected the available resources held with different
economies of all across the world8. This action of the event has increases the unwanted changes
in the environment globally that creates complexities and the difficulties faced by the project
owners.9 Using project leadership boosted the condition of the firms in upgrading its skills in
attracting external as well as internal users of the business. A leader motivates its followers in
completing is duty within a short span of time as all the subordinates represent its leader and its
guidance in marketing the products or services offered by an entity among all the customers.
The objectives of this assignment are to ensure the quality of services delivered by an
entity to all the external users by implementing project leadership techniques in an enterprise.
The quality of a leader creates its unique identity among all the managers working in an entity as
a leader is the only people who thinks about their followers and take actions o improve the
working conditions of all its followers and employees in enhancing their productivity.10 The
action of a leader has dual advantages for both employees as well for the business’s increasing
productivity of workers will, in turn, induces the singular efficiency of all the employees
7 Shumkov, Y. A., and L. A. Vidovskiy. "THE TASK OF PROJECT
MANAGMENT." Polythematic Online Scientific Journal of Kuban State Agrarian
University (2016). – all the references should be listed at the end of the report the current version
is wrong.
8 Anderson, Marc H., and Peter YT Sun. "Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for
a new ‘full‐range’theory." International Journal of Management Reviews. (2017). 19, no. 1 76-
96.
9 John M., Nicholas, and Herman Steyn. Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
10 Doris, Schedlitzki, Pasi Ahonen, Paresh Wankhade, Gareth Edwards, and Hugo Gaggiotti.
"Working with language: A refocused research agenda for cultural leadership
studies." International Journal of Management Reviews. (2017). 19, no. 2 237-257.

working for the betterment of the business in generating higher goals as the objectives in lesser
time period.
The results came out through this method stares that leader think about its followers and
employees while resolving a particular issue but at the same time, managers emphasize on
eliminating the issue without thinking about the sake of the employees as the focus of a manager
lies in meeting the order of the top management.11
As per human tendency, receiving rewards and compensation induces the performance of
an individual from the normal condition as this enhances the speed to achieve the higher target to
get the pride and recognition in front of all the employees working at a similar level.12
2.0 SCOPE OF LITERATURE REVIEW
Table 1: Data base extration
Keyword Databases Journal
Leader Wiley online library Moye, Neta, Rose Mueller‐
Hanson, and Claus Langfred.
"Assessment for Leader
Development." The Wiley
Blackwell Handbook of the
Psychology of Recruitment,
Selection and Employee
Retention (2017): 353-375.
Manager Wiley online library Block, Peter. The empowered
manager: Positive political
11 Kerzner, Harold. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring
and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
12 Baptista, Amilcar, Fernando Santos, José Páscoa, and Nadja Sändig. "Project Management
Methodologies as Main Tool for Current Challenges in Global Economy Driving Historical
Changes." Journal of Advanced Management science 4, no. 2 (2016).

skills at work. John Wiley &
Sons, 2016.
Duties of manager Journal of human resource
management
McCracken, Martin, Paula
O'Kane, Travor C. Brown,
and Mark McCrory. "Human
resource business partner
lifecycle model: exploring
how the relationship between
HRBPs and their line
manager partners
evolves." Human Resource
Management Journal 27, no.
1 (2017): 58-74.
3.0 BACKGROUNDLITERATURE REVIEW
Entire research is based on evaluating the difference among the role of a leader and a
manager in coping with the changes takes laces in the external environment. Current
research favours leader as the most suitable person as a leader fulfils all its responsibilities in the
most suitable manner by considering the views and opinions of the top management, manager
and all its followers working in a single team.13 Data collected in this research states that leader
has different perspective as compared to manager in an entity as they think about the betterment
of all the employees. A leader uses democratic style and a manager uses autocratic management
style to order all the employees to complete the work with or without interest.
13 Angela, Carbone and et..al., "Assessing distributed leadership for learning and teaching
quality: a multi-institutional study." Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.
(2017). 39, no. 2 183-196.

This research emphasizes on exploring the condition of a leader and a manager working
in a similar firm as the qualities both the individuals are different from each other. A leader
always takes initiatives to inspire their followers in accomplishing all the tasks and duties within
a stipulated time period but on another hand, a manager focuses only on the accomplishment of
the work by ordering their subordinates without thinking about all the employees.14 This
assignment emphasizes on the meeting of changing needs of the 21st century through project
leadership. They encourage the spirit of all the employees in striving hard to meet all the targets
in a less time as compared to all the competitors. Healthy competition has started in an entity due
to the existence of a leader in a business. Manager of the firm will only emphasize on the
accomplishment of all the tasks and duties without taking care of the employees as their focus
only lies on completing the task to improve its image in front of the top management as the
managers adopt rigid attitude just to complete all the tasks.
The data of this research also suggest that the action of a manager creates frustration,
dissatisfaction, and de-motivation among the employees as thinking about the business is not
good as every form is a collaboration of all the users of the firm who make up the company
together. Selfish attitude of the managers will increase the staff turnover in an entity that reduces
the goodwill and entire customer base of the firm in the external environment. On the contrary to
it, action of a leader is very different from the act of the managers as a leader inspires its
followers by decreasing its workload, explaining the importance of work by allotting all kinds of
work to nurture the hidden qualities of all the employees guidance of a leader will shape the
present as well as the future of all the workers working under the guidance of a leader.15 A
supervisor fight against the firm for the rights of its employees which increases its respect among
all their team memoirs as their focus is on building team synergy among all the members of a
team.
14 Sharma, Garima, and Anand Kumar Jaiswal. "Unsustainability of sustainability: cognitive
frames and tensions in bottom of the pyramid projects." Journal of Business Ethics (2017): 1-17.
15 Kakar, Adarsh Kumar. "Investigating the Prevalence and Performance Correlates of Vertical
Versus Shared Leadership in Emergent Software Development Teams." Information Systems
Management. (2017). 34, no. 2 172-184.

Still you need to add further information the current version still insufficient.
4.0 DISCUSSION
The literature review is based on different keywords such as leader, manager, duties of
manager and the role of a leader in an entity that answers the research question. The literature
review shows the importance of a leader as the current research question is about adapting to the
external market changes takes places in an enterprise. The author has explained various pieces of
evidence that reflect the role of a leader against the manager in an entity.
Project leadership and role of the project manager explained in the literature review
favours a leader is true as higher staff turnover in an entity gets reduces with the existence of a
leader.16 A supervisor motivates its users in staying more time in an entity as a leader assigns
tasks and duties to all the users according to their interests to accomplish all the tasks in a given
span of time.17 Project manager judges the capability of project personnel on their performance
but in a project leadership concept, a project leader interacts with the followers in resolving all
their issues.
16 Owusu, Francis, Ezekiel Kalipeni, Nicholas Awortwi, and Joy Mueni Maina Kiiru. "Building
research capacity for African institutions: confronting the research leadership gap and lessons
from African research leaders." International Journal of Leadership in Education. (2017). 20,
no. 2 220-245.
17 Johnson, Craig E. Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow. Sage
Publications, 2017.