Project Managers Vs Operations Managers: A comparison based on the style of leadership

Abstract

Within a century after the emergence of the initial theories in leadership area, several theories have tried to explain the different styles of leadership and the extent to which leaders' styles can affect the overall success of the teams or the organizations being led by them. Regardless of the different ways in which these theories explain and address the styles of leadership, two concepts of 'task' and 'individual' are focused by most of them. Leaders, depending on their personal traits, attitudes, and situational considerations may show different levels of concern for tasks and individuals. Also, the environment in which a leader operates may affect the leader's concern for tasks or individuals. Project environments, regarding the temporary nature of project-based activities, basically differ from operational environments in several aspects. Consequently, leadership in project environments may require a different style in comparison with operational environments. The current study has applied 'concern for tasks' and 'concern for individuals' as two dependent variables to make a comparison between project managers and operations managers based on the style of leadership. An online survey in a global context helped us to collect data from 159 project managers and 171 operations managers. The respondents were from different countries and various disciplines. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS using 'independent sample t-test'. The results of the analysis revealed that project managers in general show a balanced concern for tasks and individuals, whereas operations managers have a high concern for tasks and a lower concern for individuals.