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Systematic literature review of project manager's leadership competencies

Riaz Ahmed (Department of Management Studies, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan)
Simon P. Philbin (Nathu Puri Institute for Engineering and Enterprise, London South Bank University, London, UK)
Farooq-e-Azam Cheema (Department of Management Studies, Bahria University, Karachi, Pakistan)

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management

ISSN: 0969-9988

Article publication date: 11 July 2020

Issue publication date: 3 February 2021

3695

Abstract

Purpose

Over the last few decades, a large number of research studies have been carried out on project manager's leadership competencies. However, systematic literature reviews are still scarce in the project management literature. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic literature review on project manager's leadership competencies based on published empirical research studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employed a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology to synthesize research in a rigorous manner and a total of 1,780 articles were identified in the first step and a final sample of 60 research studies were synthesized.

Findings

Synthesis of the findings in this SLR on project manager's leadership competencies revealed: (a) there is a lack of categorization or ranking of leadership competencies; (b) 20 research studies (46%) were conducted with sample sizes of less than 100; (c) only a few research studies (<10%) used interview data for analysis; and (d) none of the research studies reported adoption of a triangulation method.

Research limitations/implications

This study synthesized clusters of leadership competencies and prioritized project manager's leadership competencies as “high priority”, “moderate priority” and “low priority”. We recommend a sample size between 200 and 300 to produce sophisticated results and enhance the credibility, generalizability and validity of clusters and priorities of project manager's leadership competencies through future research.

Originality/value

Future research studies are suggested to consider systematic literature review combined with face-to-face and group interview in addition to employing triangulation methods. Besides highlighting implications for practitioners, this SLR has advanced the understanding of how to conduct systematic literature reviews in a robust manner.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Our special thanks to the editor for guidance and support. We also acknowledge and appreciate the constructive comments, feedback and suggestions of anonymous reviewers for improving the quality of this SLR paper.

Citation

Ahmed, R., Philbin, S.P. and Cheema, F.-e. (2021), "Systematic literature review of project manager's leadership competencies", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-05-2019-0276

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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