Leadership styles and success of government construction projects in Kampala : a contingent stakeholder approach

Abstract

The aim of the thesis was to examine the relationship between leadership styles, stakeholder engagement and government construction project success and developed a framework to enhance project success in Kampala, Uganda. This study adopted a mixed method approach and data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and interview guide and analysed using ssps and structural modelling. Additionally, Atlas ti was used to derive themes from qualitative data to triangulate the quantitative results to answer the hypotheses of this study. A sample of 100 out of 120 Kampala Capital City Authority construction projects from the five divisions of Kampala for quantitative data. Four respondents (project engineers, contractors, managers and local council leaders) were purposely selected from each of the 100 projects selected arriving at 400 respondents for the study. Stratified random sampling was used to select road construction projects for the quantitative strand while purposive sampling was used to select local council leaders for interviews for the study. For the qualitative study, 8 out 15 purposely selected local council leaders formed participants for qualitative data. Path goal and stakeholder theories were integrated into an applied framework that explains factors that influence project success. Results showed that leadership styles especially communication and participation are positively and significantly associated with government construction project success (Beta=0.840, SE=0.90, CR=8.440). Results also showed a significant and positive mediating effect of stakeholder engagement in the relationship between leadership styles and success of government construction projects in Uganda. Overall, the mediative role of stakeholder engagement boosts leadership styles by 45 percentage points to promote government construction projects success in Uganda. The study contributions to the body of knowledge are three fold; first, limited knowledge existed on the relationship between leadership styles (participation, communication and success of government construction projects in Kampala, Uganda.This study significantly contributes knowledge towards disclosing the importance of leadership styles especially communication and participation on success of government construction projects in Kampala, Uganda. Secondly, the study adds to existing literature and practice by integrating the mediating role of stakeholder engagement (trust and commitment) in the relationship between leadership styles (communication and participation) and success of construction projects, especially among governments in sub-Saharan Africa. It specifically reveals that the introduction of stakeholder engagement as the mediator variable improves the performance of projects more than when the direct relationships were considered independently during the theoretical analysis. Lastly, the study developed and used communication and participation as measures of leadership styles, commitment and trust as measures of stakeholder engagement as well as quality and cost as measures of project success which measures can be adopted by future project research studies to arrive at reliable conclusions. To policy, findings suggest that policymakers should consider including project practice and implementation literacy education in the secondary education curriculum. Notably, governments in developing countries Uganda inclusive should have strong communication and participation policies in government construction projects. Collective decision making involving all key stakeholders in construction projects can promote efficiency and proper resources allocation to achieve construction milestones. This may reduce on shoddy works and promote timely and certified construction project completion to eliminate resource wastage by controlling government development fund leakages.