Impact of Leadership Styles on Project success: Evidence from Private Sector Firms of Construction Industry

Abstract

Leadership styles have a key role in the success of construction industry projects. Construction industry is a vast and complex industry and is known for a number of decisive factors involved. Hence, role of project leadership is critical in the success of this industry. Accordingly, this research is targeted to examine the role of leadership in this industry through studying the impact of various leadership styles i.e. transformation leadership, transactional leadership, laissez fair leadership and spiritual leadership styles with its dimension on project success in private sector firms of the construction industry. It is a deductive approach and cross-sectional survey-based research in which hypotheses are tested. Reliability of the survey is checked through pilot testing before the final distribution among the responded. Simple random sampling technique is used to collect the sample from the selected population including project leaders, project directors, project managers, supervisors and team members with sample size n=320 in the region of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Results of the analysis show that transformational leadership styles with its dimension are significantly positively associated with project success. Contingent reward and management by exception (active) dimensions of transactional leadership are significantly positively associated with project success, where management by exception (passive) dimension has shown negatively relationship with project success. Laissez fair leadership also shown a negative association with project success. Finally, the two dimensions of vision and hope/faith of Spiritual leadership show a significant positive impact on project success and altruistic love show a negative relationship with project success. Further, this research contributes to the project management literature in the context of private sectors constructions firms. This is the first study which explored the impact of spiritual leadership style on project success. In addition, this is the first study which explored the impact of dimensions of leadership styles on project success in the constructions firms. The study presented recommendations on the basis of results and findings. Based on the limitation of the study, future research recommendations are also presented