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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of humble leadership on project success. In addition, we examine the mediating effect of organisational learning on the relationship between humble leadership and the success of international development projects.

This study adopted a quantitative research methodology based on questionnaire data collected from 80 international development project managers from different sectors in Senegal (West Africa). The variance-based structural equation method, following the partial least squares approach, was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results showed that humble leadership is positively related to project success. Furthermore, organizational learning mediates the relationship between humble leadership and project success.

This research has several limitations. The authors did not examine the role of organizational culture as a moderating variable. However, the authors believe that the cultural variable can have an impact on project success and team building, and future studies should consider this aspect as well. In the African context, each country has its own culture, which may affect the behaviour of the project manager. Also, the authors admit that the sample size is relatively small, which greatly reduces the generalizability of the results.

These findings have important implications. First, because a project leader’s humility enhances project success, it is critical for development projects to select leaders who demonstrate modest conduct in the workplace. The perfect selection of a humble leader depends heavily on judgements about the characteristics of a humble leader from new project manager candidates.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study found that humble leadership is important for project success, thus extending the utility of the concept of humble leadership to the project literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether differences in media exposure regarding corporate corruption appear to influence companies’ anti-corruption disclosures. The authors also examine whether the level of press freedom in firms’ home countries affects disclosure and the impact of media exposure in different ways.

The authors use Transparency International’s 2012 ratings of anti-corruption disclosure by the 105 largest multinational firms in the world, press freedom assessments from the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders, and media exposure measures based on a search using the Dow Jones Factiva database. The authors assess relations using regression analysis controlling for other firm-specific factors potentially impacting disclosure choices. Finally, the authors consider the potential effect of other country-level factors.

The results indicate that media exposure, using either an existence or an extensiveness measure, is positively related to differences in sample companies’ anti-corruption disclosures. The authors also find that disclosure is more (less) extensive where home country press freedom is less (more) restricted and that reduced press freedom appears to reduce the impact of media exposure on the disclosure. The authors further document that press freedom levels explain more difference in anti-corruption disclosures than other country-level factors potentially influencing the practice.

Because the investigation is limited to very large international firms for a single year, the degree to which the findings apply to other companies and time periods cannot be assessed. Further, the authors cannot determine how the findings would hold using an alternative disclosure rating scheme. Finally, the authors do not assess whether differences in the source of media exposure impact the findings.

The findings suggest that, to the extent that improved anti-corruption disclosure reflects greater corporate attention to corruption issues, the media may be a powerful player in addressing this social ill. Unfortunately, the results also indicate that media efforts may not be sufficient to bring about change in locations where the freedom of the press is limited. Further, the results suggest that disclosure appears to be a function of exposure to social and political exposures, and the authors therefore question whether it will actually lead to improved corruption performance.

The study is the first to consider the impacts of media exposure and press freedom on corporate social disclosures.