HIGHLIGHTING APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP STYLE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE NEED FOR A BROADER RESEARCH APPROACH TO THE CONTEXT‐RELATED USE OF LEADERSHIP STYLES

PDF: DRMJ vol12 no01 2023 (Article 7)

DOI:

doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a07

Author(s):

Excerpt:

 A project manager’s leadership style has a considerable impact on project success. However, there is no one best appropriate leadership behavior. The characteristics of the project and the organizational context determine which leadership style could be appropriate in different situations. To provide a clear picture of the complexity of contextual features, leadership style, and its relation to project success, there is a need for a systematic review of leadership style–related papers focusing on project management. This paper has two aims: to provide a content analysis of previous papers to determine which leadership style approaches were studied in project management; and to provide a detailed content analysis of previous findings of project management studies in terms of matching project characteristics and organizational features with the appropriate leadership style of the project manager. The findings of this paper give a comprehensive analysis of previous results, and also highlight the weaknesses in terms of neglected aspects of conceptualization and deficiencies. Our results indicate the lack of comprehensive context‐related studies of project manager’s’ leadership. Thus, there is a need for research examining project characteristics and contextual features in detail to identify the appropriate project managers’ leadership style by means of deductive reasoning. 

Pages:

107‐119