A switch in time saves nine: Discovering a new methodology to succeed in projects using transformational leadership in cross-cultural settings

In this research work, I have tested the assumption that the project leader is the key to project success. This thesis documents an empirical analysis of leadership in project management practices on 153 projects across 28 nations. This is a three phase research study for which 46 projects were studied in phase 1* representing 14 nations and 107 projects were examined in phase 2 originating from 25 nations. Phase 3 has a set of 111 projects exploring the multicultural aspects of project teams and their levels of maturity. The main purpose of this research is to study the importance of project leadership and team related factors and enlist the factors that play a pivotal role in achieving project success.; It is a multinational and thus multicultural research study that represents the present day project environment which is highly multicultural and multidisciplinary.; The results from the analysis of data obtained from phase 1 lead to the development of the phase 2 questionnaires that further explores the links between different leadership aspects and project success as pointed out in the phase 1.; "Switch" refers to a period of time in which one style of leadership is used during a project and indicates that there was a different leadership style immediately preceding or following it. A switch in the leadership style during the "implementation phase" of the project is not only a mere requirement but also a necessity for the team to meet the project objectives on time and on budget. This research explores this link between leadership changes and project success.; Project leadership illustrates the trend of transformational leadership in general management. This study is one of the first to model transformational and style leadership across projects in various organisations in several countries and the results suggest several interesting and important avenues for further research, namely the combination of transformational leadership and relationship aspects of the style approach, to be employed either concurrently or consecutively.; My findings show that the project manager who exercises the transformational leadership approach of inspirational motivation enjoys more project success; inspiring and empowering followers to enthusiastically accept and pursue challenging goals and a mission. Project managers who employ futuristic, visionary transformational leadership and, more specifically, idealised influence, in conjunction with a more immediate, everyday relationship-oriented approach enjoy more project success. More experienced project managers are better able to leverage this multi-dimensional, multi-temporal leadership approach.; This study also highlights the importance of temporal aspects in project leadership with the results supporting the view that time is an important element in the leadership. The present research findings support the research view that successful project managers display strong decision making ability.; At the end of this thesis I provide a tentative and suggestive list of factors displaying the impact of critical leadership factors on project success using switch leadership. I also suggest a tentative model displaying the impact of critical team leadership factors on project success using Structural Equation Modeling. LISREL and SPSS software have been used to develop the aforesaid model.; *Phase 1, 2 or 3 and phase I, II or III denote the same thing throughout the thesis.