Answer

Article Review

Article Reviewed: Algahtani, A. (2014). Are leadership and management different? A review. Journal of management policies and practices, 2(3), 71-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.15640/jmpp.v2n3a4

Dr. Ali Algahtani’s article, Are Leadership and Management Different? A Review seeks to determine whether leadership and management are different. Reading through the abstract and the title of the article, it is easy to note that the article will describe the differences and similarities of the roles conducted by managers and leaders. According to the author’s abstract, the article’s findings indicate that leadership and management are two extremely distinct functions (Algahtani, 2014). Nevertheless, leadership and management have various similarities when it comes to the duties conducted, including working with individuals and influencing others to achieve objectives (Leroy et al., 2018). The author indicates that management skills are used to plan, build and direct organizational systems to accomplish missions and objectives. In contrast, leadership skills are used to focus on a potential change by establishing direction, aligning individuals, and motivating and inspiring others.

Analysis

According to Algahtani’s article, people often assume that all managers are leaders. However, this is not always the case, given that some managers do not exercise leadership and some individuals lead without having any management positions (Leroy et al., 2018). Algahtani uses different reliable articles to understand the differences and similarities between managers and leaders. The article indicates that managers often center on formal controlling and directing their assistants, resources, structures, and systems. He emphasizes that managers aim to achieve short-term goals, prevent risks and develop standardization to enhance efficacy.

 According to the article, managers depend upon three special abilities. These include technical, human, and conceptual skills (Algahtani, 2014). Technical abilities refer to proficiency in a specific form of work. This can include competencies within a specialized field or the ability to use appropriate tools and approaches. Human skills refer to the ability to use work with individuals, which permits the manager to assist group members complete a task. Conceptual skills refer to working with ideas (Hallinger, 2020). The article emphasizes that an effective manager should have specific qualities, including enhanced communication, organizational, negotiation, and delegation skills.

Algahtani’s article describes leaders as individuals who often center on motivation and inspiration. According to the article, leaders aim to develop a passion for accompanying their vision, achieving long-term objectives, taking risks to complete common goals, and challenging their current status quo (Leroy et al., 2018). The article advocates that a leader keeps an open eye on his/her staff’s benefits. This indicates that people follow the leader willingly, and the leader guides them by using a transformational approach (Algahtani, 2014). According to the article, leaders should have vision, integrity, toughness, decisiveness, trust, commitment, creativity, selfness, communication abilities, and visibility. The article aims to examine both leadership and management and identify whether they differ or are the same.

Research question

The article’s research question is; what is the difference between leadership and management?. The article addresses and compares fundamental definitions of leadership and management based on this question. It centers on the manager and the leader’s specific types of skills. Moreover, it identifies the similarities and differences in managers’ and leaders’ roles.

How the study was conducted

An extensive literature search was conducted using electronic databases. These included EBSCO, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. The study aimed to identify and locate all previous articles which discuss the differences between leadership and management.

Study’s Research design

The study used the Literature Review design (Secondary data analysis) and the systematic review design. This design centers on identifying and reviewing scholarly articles that present the current knowledge, including substantive findings and theoretical and methodological contributions to a significant topic.

Material Used in Study

Researchers can use reference materials such as almanacs, encyclopedias, or dictionaries for reliable facts. Alghanti’s article utilized online databases of academic journals, peer-reviewed journal articles. These articles are written by researchers and scholars with the same objective of understanding management and leadership.

Procedures of conducting research

The search identified 231,000 articles about leadership and management. A total of 25,000 articles remained after eliminating those duplicated on Google Scholar and across other databases.

Dependent and Independent Variables

The study’s dependent variables are the manager’s and leaders’ scores. The independent variables are the roles played by leaders and managers. According to the article, managers have both similarities and differences in their roles in an organization.

Data Analysis

Among 25 000 articles, 200 were selected since they addressed the same topic about management and leadership. 37 articles were approved for review since they were original peer-reviewed articles.

Study results

After reviewing a series of articles, most of the authors attempted to identify the difference by comparing management and leadership in definition and skills. Moreover, the study identified that the leaders and the managers need various skills.

Implication

The study indicated that managers and leaders have both similar and different roles. However, according to the study, not all managers are leaders. The author emphasizes that managers are obliged to also have leadership qualities, given that they enhance interactions with the employees.

Conclusion

Information presented in the articles is useful in various aspects due to different reasons. For instance, if an organization has strong leadership and management, there will be optimal effectiveness. In these modern times, individuals and organizations necessitate leaders to cope with new challenges and transform to achieve a competitive advantage. Moreover, the organization needs managers to maintain a smooth operation and use resources. Therefore, the article’s information is useful since it provides all the skills and roles relating to managers and leaders.