THE INTERACTION BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLES AND MANAGEMENT LEVEL, AND THEIR IMPACT ON PROJECT SUCCESS

Abstract

Leadership is the catalyst which ignites collaboration and participation towards achieving project success. Recent studies have acknowledged that leadership affect construction project success indirectly. However, how this success derived through leadership is directly related to management seniority remains unexplored. It is hypothesized that the higher a person advances in an organization the need to become more effective in achieving project success increases. To test this hypothesis and to improve project success rates, leadership at different managerial levels is explored through a case study using Kurt Lewin’s and Multifactor Leadership (ML) questionnaires. The democratic and transformational styles of leadership were the most efficient in achieving project success. However, analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed there is no significant relationship between project success and leadership style but there exists a strong association between management level and leadership style and a significant relationship between management level and project success. This suggest there is a maturity in leadership style as management level progresses, as such, a person should become more effective in guaranteeing project success based on how far they have progressed in the management structure of their organization.