Leadership profiles of successful project managers in Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines the possible relationship between leadership competency and project performance within an Indonesia project-based organization setting. Four mediating variables are considered in the analysis: industry type, project complexity, project strategic value, and contract type.Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional quantitative survey was administered to empirically evaluate the theoretical model. The targeted population was projected in Indonesia, and a snowball sampling method was utilized. Out of 183 respondents, 81 responded to the invitation, which accounts for a 44.2% response rate.Findings: It was found that the leadership profiles of more and less successful project managers differ, which suggests a positive association between competency and performance. More importantly, the evidence suggests that both industry type and complexity moderate the relationship. The different patterns of leadership profiles for successful managers in three types of industries—const ruction, information and communication technology (ICT), and consultancy—and under different project complexity levels were observed. No substantial evidence was observed for the moderating effects of “project strategic value” and “contract type.” It was also found that across contexts, three attributes of leadership differently influence performance in the following order of importance: IQ, MQ, and EQ. Generally, the results agree with the findings of past similar studies in different countries. However, some variations were found at a more detailed level, which may be due to cultural differences.Research limitations/implications: The study further extends the existing body of knowledge on project leadership, as it provides a new understanding on leadership profile and its efficacy within different contexts of project-based organizations in Indonesia—a case of a developing countryPractical implications: It exposes project practitioners to different leadership profiles that lead to successful and unsuccessful projects within different settings.Originality/value: This study provides an original work (theoretical and empirical) on a leadership area of project management within a specific context of a developing country.

Proposed Competencies Required for Construction Project Managers in Afghanistan

“…According to ICB-IMPA-2015 project manager's competencies has three aspects: intellectual, managerial, and emotional. A much more collaborated dissect review showed that all three leadership aspects (EQ, MQ, IQ,) responding separately to the success of the project [32] . Critical analysis, strategic viewpoint, and self-vision are comprised in the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).…”

“…The Management Quotient (MQ) comprises interconnection, resource management, team achievement, growth, and empowerment. Personality, openness to intuition, and governance is the aspects of emotional quotient (EQ) (inspiration and conscientiousness included) [32] . ICB-IMPA-2015 [13] proposed three aspects of project manager competencies.…”

Impact of team diversity and conflict on project performance in Indonesian start-ups

“…These variables were eventually excluded from the final theoretical model to maintain model's parsimony. Regarding task complexity, studies on complexity in other project domains such as project risk (Hartono, 2018) and project leadership (Hartono, Sulistyo & Umam, 2019) have found project complexity to affect the strength (i.e., weakness or strength) and sign (i.e., positive or negative) of the relationship between respective key predictors and project performance. Within project diversity research, however, this moderating effect seems to be negligible, as reported in a meta-analysis study by Horwitz and Horwitz (2007).…”

Complexity, leadership, and megaproject performance: A configuration analysis

“…From a complexity perspective, one can effectively understand and manage a megaproject (Flyvbjerg, Bruzelius & Rothengatter, 2003;Sato & Chagas Jr, 2014). This perspective can serve as a powerful analytical lens in terms of observing intricate problems that may stem from various project management settings, such as project failure (Ivory & Alderman, 2005), knowledge management (Hartono, Sulistyo, Chai & Indarti, 2019), stakeholders (Aaltonen & Kujala, 2016), leadership (Hartono, Sulistyo & Umam, 2019), tasks and scheduling (Ahn et al, 2017), team (Hsu, Weng, Cui & Rand, 2016), and project practice (Cooke-Davies, 2011). However, the literature review exhibits a limited focus in the context of megaproject studies.…”

“…Consequently, it has been deemed crucial to look into leadership aspects in megaproject management. Previous studies on regular project management have suggested that effective leadership depends on the project setting or attributes (e.g., the type of project (Müller & Turner, 2007), industry type, and project complexity (Hartono, Sulistyo & Umam, 2019). Similar strategies potentially apply in megaprojects, wherein project managers make choices according to the megaproject and its complexities (Sankaran, 2018).…”