How effective leadership influences project success

How effective leadership influences project success



Table of Contents

Table of Content1

Executive Summary1

Introduction2

Purpose of Study2

Significance3

Literature review3

Project success5

Project types7

Methodology8

Questions8

Project success9

Project type9

Leadership questions9

Demographic questions9

Respondents10

Implementation plan14

Conclusions14

Recommendations15

References16

Executive Summary

This study examines the leadership competency profiles of successful project managers in different types of projects. Four hundred responses to the Leadership Development Questionnaire (LDQ) were used to profile the intellectual, managerial and emotional competences (IQ, MQ and EQ, respectively) of project managers of successful projects. Differences by project type were accounted for through categorization of projects by their application type (engineering & construction, information & telecommunication technology, organizational change), complexity, importance and contract type. Results indicate high expressions of one IQ sub-dimension (i.e. critical thinking) and three EQ sub-dimensions (i.e. influence, motivation and conscientiousness) in successful managers in all types of projects. Other sub-dimensions varied by project type. Comparison was made to existing profiles for goal oriented, involving and engaging leadership styles. Implications derived are the need for practitioners to be trained in the soft factors of leadership, particular for their types of projects. Theoretical implications include the need for more transactional styles in relatively simple projects and more transformational leadership styles in complex projects.

How effective leadership influences project success

Introduction

Managers are more likely to perform better or to stay longer in their position if their personal characteristics meet the requirements of the position (Mumford et al., 2000). A popular way to identify these characteristics is by profiling the personalities of successful managers.

Profiling provides the idiosyncratic combination of behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental attributes of a leader, in order to derive a person's particular leadership style. Profiles are often used to relate the profile dimensions to success or failure in a person's leadership position, or alternatively select or develop managers from the match between existing profiles of successful mangers and those of candidates for appointment to management positions. We conducted the present study to identify the leadership profiles of successful managers of projects of different type, which can then be used in the way described above.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of the study will be to Investigate how effective leadership influences project success.

Significance

Research on matching project managers to project types includes Hauschildt et al. (2000) study which categorized project managers as either project star, promising newcomer, focused creative expert, uncreative decision-maker, or thick-skinned pragmatist. For each of these categories they showed the fit to particular combinations of large or small project budgets, high or low project priority, extent of information access and provision, need for technology skills, and level of participation in goal formation. By looking at the construction industry only, Dainty et al. (2004) developed a competency-based framework for performance in projects. Their results reveal some of the variables also found in the competency school of leadership, such as achievement orientation, analytical thinking, as well as impact and influence. It is only recently that the project management literature has acknowledged that projects different from the construction industry may require different approaches to their management, and that both the project management procedures used (Crawford et ...