A STUDY ON LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT PJAEE, 17 (7) (2020)

A STUDY ON LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Aminah Ahmad1*, Siti Sarah Maidin2

1*
Asia Pacific University (APU)
2
Asia Pacific University (APU). E-mail: [email protected]
1*
[email protected]

Aminah Ahmad, Siti Sarah Maidin. A Study on Leadership Skills in Project

Management-- Palarch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 17(7), 8630-8639.
ISSN 1567-214x.

Index Terms: Graduates, Project Management, Leadership, PMBOK, Management,

Practices, Skills.

ABSTRACT:
Leadership skills are necessary for project management to ensure future project managers can
deliver their projects effectively. This paper aims to investigate whether gaps exist between
the skills of the graduate project management student with what is expected by the industry
once they enter into the project management environment. The objective in this study is
achieved through. The findings show that students lack skills in effectively organizing and
running a meeting, planning, estimating/scheduling, time management, critical thinking, and
interpersonal skills.

INTRODUCTION
Developing project managers’ leadership skills with a focus on team
performance improvement should be a significant objective in leadership skills
development for project managers. With the business environment getting
more complex and volatile, the necessity for greater leadership skills in
projects increases. The lack of modern approaches by project management
professionals in terms of education and training of project leaders are now a
much-acknowledged situation [1]. Students must learn the practical skills
needed to contribute to the workforce after graduation. It is due to the reason
that leadership skills are constantly ignored due to financial constraints. To
maintain and meet the demand of the industry, it is important that future
project leaders are being trained and equipped with the right skills to succeed.

As the industry is not satisfied with the skills performed by the new entrants,
there seems to be a gap between the students’ skills and the industry experts.
As a consequence of this, high attrition evolves in the industry, which is

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detrimental to industrial growth. This is why the gap between industry

expectations and the current educational system is analyzed.

This paper aims to study the gaps between the leadership skills of the graduate
project management students and the expectation from related industry and the
solutions to overcome it. The reviews of leadership skill issues and solutions
will be done through literature reviews and supported by the results of an
online survey. This paper has raised Two (2) research objectives, which are to
propose a solution with regards to leadership skills in project management and
to identify the factors contributing to ineffective leadership skills among
project managers.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Projects are getting more complicated to manage every year. Project managers
must respond quickly to adapt to changing economic, social, and technical
circumstances. Projects and other forms of temporary organizations differ
from the standard organization. Since most theories of leadership are based on
stable work conditions, the growth of temporary organizations poses
challenges to leadership theories [4]. Besides, project leadership which
involves different people and the management of budgets, resources, and
individuals who work together are also an important factor in the
organization's success [5]. The current development in project management
saw the expected performance of project managers in many projects as less
than the actual perceived results. For instance, 68% of all projects are
unsuccessful [3]. To overcome the challenge, researchers are in the opinion
that there should be an innovative approach towards leadership development
in project management [2].

A systematic approach was adopted, and the search criteria addressed the
research issues. These parameters were identified as criteria for eligibility:
1. Returned search keyword: leadership; projects, project management;
2. Date of publication from 2010 to 2020;
3. Publications are written in English AND
4. The article addresses leadership in projects/project management.

The source of the articles is Google Scholar, Mendeley and Scopus in March
2020. The results obtained from the search using criteria (i) above were
examined to include potential articles using each title, keyword set, and
abstract of papers that met the criteria of (ii) and (iii). Due to language and
year of publication requirements, the database search provided 43714 articles.
The articles have been examined more carefully to achieve the research goals,
and 15 papers were chosen for this Literature Review due to their suitability to
the issues being discussed.

Theories of Leadership
There are several key leadership theories, which include Great Man Theory,
Trait Leadership Theory. Contingency theory, situational theory, and
behavioral theory. The Great Man theory assumes that the traits of leadership
are intrinsic. At the same time, the Trait Leadership Theory believes that
people are either born or are made with certain qualities that will make them

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excel in leadership roles. Behavioral Theories offer a new perspective, one

that focuses on the behaviors of the leaders as opposed to their mental,
physical or social characteristics.

On the other hand, the Contingency Leadership Theory argues that there is no
single way of leading and that every leadership style should be based on
certain situations, which signifies that there are certain people who perform at
the maximum level in certain places; but at minimal performance when taken
out of their element. According to Situational Theory, a leader exercises a
particular form of leadership based on the maturity level of his or her team.

From the 15 articles reviewed, the six main schools of leadership were
discussed in 4 articles. Transformational and transactional leadership were
mentioned in 12 out of 15 articles reviewed, while emotional intelligence
leadership was mentioned in 2 articles only.

Does Leadership Style Contribute to the Success of the Project?

On the question of whether leadership style contributes to the success of the
project, 11 out of 15 articles reviewed agree that leadership style helps to
achieve project success. However, this notion has only been assumed and
researched in the context of project results [6]. A suitable leadership style can
improve project success through teamwork and a direct impact on a certain
type of project. According to [3], trained and educated project management
students are unable to deal with the increasing complexity of their work
environment in today's world. They use only a small amount of current
innovative learning environments and techniques. It is, therefore, essential to
develop project managers that can address the increasing complexity and
uncertainty in projects.

Project Manager Role

From the 15 articles reviewed, the Project Manager's role has been listed as
below:
1. Being coaches, facilitators, learning leaders, and developers;
2. Define a project and make it possible for those who can influence the
successful implementation of the project to understand its rationale;
3. Helps the project team to articulate, organize, employ, monitor, evaluate
and manage the project team's objectives and products from initial project
completion to final success;
4. Satisfy several stakeholders ' growing demands, AND
5. To adopt a more holistic view of what project management entails, which
requires them to move beyond the iron triangle.

Project Success Factors

The following factors have been cited as the top factors for successful projects
from the 15 articles reviewed:
1. A relationship between teamwork and team achievement (including team
communication, collaboration, and cohesiveness);
2. Within - time, within - budget and within - quality measures (triple
triangle);
3. Stakeholder’s satisfaction, end-user satisfaction and team’s satisfaction;

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4. Clear and concise communication; AND

5. Clearly defined goals and direction.

Project Failure Factors

The following factors have been cited in the 15 articles reviewed as the most
popular reasons for project failures:
1. Poor Leadership;
2. Unable to meet the deadline, scope and budget overrun and quality
deterioration;
3. Choosing project managers by evaluating their technical skills only;
4. The external client efficiency measures;
5. Legal, political and social repercussions;
6. Failure to align their overall strategic objectives with their project
objectives; AND
7. Using the same strategy for all project’s syndrome, irrespective of the
different components of the projects undertaken.

The above factors show that there exist a lot of problems if a project manager
lacks the correct knowledge or expertise. The major drawbacks of project
management are loss of resources, problems in scheduling, security issues, and
interpersonal conflicts.

Does Leadership Style affect the Relationship among Teams?

8 out of 15 articles reviewed agree that the leadership style affects the
relationship among teams. Leadership style is said to:
1. Improve team relations and improve the cohesion of the team;
2. Ensure success and prosperity, develop individuals, teams and an
organization and community in which they work;
3. Lead staff to made significant contributions to the project's success,
purpose, and importance;
4. Helps other group members to achieve group or organizational objectives
in learning processes;
5. Understand that the success of the project is not just the sum of individual
contributions; it is the result of a collective effort to include them in a
finished product, AND
6. Enhance the commitment of the team members by giving them sufficient
freedom to employ techniques, work, and decision – making.

Leadership Skills
Among the most popular leadership skills mentioned in the 15 articles
reviewed are:
1. The ability to inspire and motivate others to assume strong core beliefs to
produce high-performance results from others;
2. Emphasizes efficient team building and the common purpose or objective
between team members;
3. Implicate other people in decision making and implementation;
4. Sustainable leadership coupled with compassion and generosity;
5. Encourage high levels of group solidarity when employees strongly
identify with their team and also know that other employees do so;

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6. Intellectual, management and emotional skills for social interaction

coordination and strengthening team management to generate ideas and
facilitate collaboration, which helps stimulate intellectuals and promote
collaborations;
7. Effective in communication, inspiring and motivating project groups;
8. Management skills including problem resolution; persuasive public
speech, efficient management of the meeting, support the development of
employees as well as evaluate their achievements;
9. Apply emotional intelligence concepts;
10. Invites participants who do not participate actively in the project, and
encourages them to continue to support the project schedule;
11. Develop a vision strategy and put the strategies into operational proposals
and outcomes;
12. Critically assess plans and actions, and provide guidance, build and
maintain relationships and emotional resilience to respond to unforeseen
events and stress often experienced in projects.

Does communication play an important role in leadership?

4 out of 15 articles reviewed stressed the important role communication plays
in a leader where it is said as the factor that can improve the overall project
team performance.

Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership

1. Transformational Leadership
The concept of Transformational Leadership has been mentioned in 12 out of
15 articles reviewed. From the articles reviewed, Transformational Leaders are
said to:
1. Show charisma, build up pride, respect, confidence and a vision;
2. Inspire and encourage people with high expectations and appropriate
models of behavior, and challenges to meet new ideas and approaches;
3. Take care of individual team members concerns;
4. Be more effective to predict project performance;
5. Align followers needs with the responsibilities and objectives of the
organization;
6. Support high levels of achievement and team member’s satisfaction:
collaboration, trust-building attributes;
7. Communicate and dialog in supporting team building and engagement;
8. Create a common vision and strong team members identification built not
just concentrating on project completion;
9. Build links between leaders and respective team members to maximize
their potential;
10. Correlates better with positive results in supporting, innovative cultures
compared to transaction leadership;
11. Focused on the management of human to - people relations;
12. Promoting collective mission and providing an inspiring vision of the
future that will improve the confidence and passion of the subordinates;
AND

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13. Encourage subordinates to challenge traditional approaches and to

emphasize the importance of cooperation in new perspectives when
solving problems.

2. Transactional Leadership
From the articles reviewed, Transaction Leaders are said to:
1. Use an exchange model with bonuses or positive results;
2. Focused on facilitating tasks in product development;
3. Stresses on rewards;
4. Presents traditional leadership opinions focusing on the contract between
the leaders and members;
5. Interact to assign individual tasks and roles only, AND
6. Put pressure on subordinates to achieve their expected objectives through
punishment.

METHODS
Questionnaires have been selected for this study as it is reliable and fast
method for efficient and timely collection of information from many
respondents. By using this method, the researcher will be able to contact
multiple participants in several weeks of the survey quickly and effectively.
The questionnaire is one of the most frequently used methods of data
collection, and thus many new scientists in business and management and
other social sciences associate research with questionnaires [7].

The study was conducted among project management students in Asia Pacific
University (APU) and project managers and team members within Klang
Valley. Purposive sampling is selected as it is likely to be collected based on
population characteristics and the purpose of the study. A list of project
management teams will be acquired and will be the target respondents of the
research. Only active project managers and project team members who are
responsible for a project environment will be included.

The respondents from the project managers and team members within Klang
Valley will be selected from the middle management level and above. The
total number of respondents is 100. The Questionnaires were distributed using
google form due to its characteristics, which support faster data retrieval,
quick data analysis, and ease of use. An online survey consists of 35 questions
was created using Google Form. The online survey invitations were sent out to
approximately 100 prospective respondents and received 64 responses. The
data from the questionnaires are then collected and transferred to an Excel
sheet, and finally, all the tabulated information was transmitted to SPSS.

FINDINGS
Fig. 1 illustrates the Leadership skills which are important in Project
Management. The five most important aspects of leadership are highlighted,
which are: Time Management; Team Work/Team Participation, Critical
Thinking, Planning, Estimate /Scheduling, and; Initiative.

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Figure 1 Leadership Skills

Project Resource Management incorporates processes in which the resources

needed to complete the project are established, obtained, and handled. It
ensures the right resources are available for the project when it is needed.
Project Resource Management consists of six (6) processes as shown in Table
1 below:

Table 1 The link between resources process and Leadership Skills

According to [8], Leadership is one of the components of the PMI Talent

Triangle. Leadership and business intelligence are skills organizations are
looking. Members of different companies agree that these competencies will
add to the bottom line by promoting long-term strategic goals. Project
managers must balance these three competencies in order to be effective [8].
Leadership skill is defined as the ability to effectively use the knowledge of
project management to achieve the desired results for the programs or projects.
The ten (10) knowledge areas in Project Management Body of Knowledge

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(PMBOK) describe many of these necessary project management skills.

Without these skills, the projects will be difficult to implement. Although
there are many project management skills, project managers still rely on expert
analysis to be effective.

Respondents were asked regarding leadership skills that project management

graduates lack. Fig.2. shows the list of leadership skills that project
management graduates lack.

Figure 2 List of Leadership Skills that Project Management Graduates Lack

Both leadership and management skills need to be employed by young

graduates when they enter the project management environment. Apart from
that, young graduates may also consider major factors such as leader, team
member, organizational and environmental characteristics when deciding
which leadership style to choose when they enter the project management
environment.

Respondents were asked about factors contributing to ineffective leadership

skills among project managers. According to the results and as shown in
Fig.3., the top five factors contributing towards ineffective leadership skills
are gaps in expertise, inadequate exposure during graduate school, lack of
training, poor risk management, and inconsistent support from stakeholders.
Meanwhile, two (2) aspects show the lower score, lean funding, and low
morale.

Figure 3 Top Five Factors Contributing Towards Ineffective Leadership Skills

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Respondents were asked regarding how does project management practitioners

address leadership skills problems. The findings, as shown in Fig.4. below,
demonstrated the ways project management practitioners address leadership
skills problems; which are by setting a vision for the team, setting goals,
creating a development plan, embracing feedback, and knowing what value
you bring to the table.

Figure 4 Ways Project Management Practitioners Address Leadership Skills

Problems

Project management heavily relies on people as a common denominator;

therefore, project managers need to study people’s behavior and motivation.
Working with sponsors diligently to align the project strategies is also
important. Project manager applies their leadership skills and qualities when
working with all project stakeholders. It is then important for project managers
to apply effective leadership skills [8]. Ineffective leadership occurs when
leaders say one thing and do another. They lost credibility from their
subordinates when this occurs in the long run. It is useful to know what
characteristics cause unsuccessful leaders because they can provide a
benchmark for what leaders cannot do.

CONCLUSION
The study aimed to provide a solution with regards to leadership skills in
project management, to identify the factors contributing towards ineffective
leadership skills among project managers and to investigate the current
methods being used by project management in addressing leadership skills
issues. The responses imply that project managers train their employees to
lead themselves. An effect is a form of recognition where each employee gets
a greater understanding of his thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, and possible
results. Employees should work together, including a leader, to build a
common culture. Phases in such a process is to understand the strengths of an
organization, clarify goals, identify barriers and make use of the toolbox to
achieve the goals. By achieving the above-mentioned objectives, the education
and technical institution will be able to supply graduates to the industry with
the correct leadership skills to manage projects with a focus towards team
performance improvement thus enabling significant improvement to the
increasingly complex and volatile project environment.

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