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This study aims to examine the mediating role of cooperative style to conflict resolution and team potency in the relationship between transactional leadership style and the success of international development projects (IDP). The study draws on full range leadership theory and contextualizes transactional leadership style to the IDP environment.

A questionnaire survey was administered to a convenience sample of 111 IDP managers in Benin. The data obtained from the survey were subjected to principal component analysis using the SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis using XLSTAT-PLSM. The research hypotheses are tested according to the partial least squares method.

The hypothesis test shows that transactional leadership has a direct and indirect positive influence (through team potency) on the success of IDP. Contrary to the cooperative style of conflict resolution, team potency plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between transactional leadership and the success of IDP. Also, considering the effect of the specific dimensions of transactional leadership on the success of IDP, only the “active management by exception” dimension influences directly and indirectly (through team potency) on the latter.

As a result, this research is of great value to IDP managers who are aware of the positive consequences associated with transactional leadership without knowing the role played by its dimensions. Indeed, it provides them with information necessary to identify the appropriate transactional leadership behaviors to improve the success of projects.

The relevance of this study is to consider team potency as intermediary mechanisms between transactional leadership and the success of IDP and examine the effect of the dimensions of transactional leadership on the success of IDP by integrating the mediating action of team potency. Besides, this research highlights a mechanism through which transactional leadership influences the success of IDPs and shows that the use of the construct of transactional leadership rather than its specific dimensions does not capture the specificities of the mechanism that links transactional leadership and its consequences.

The aim of this study is to evaluate to what extent the project team size influence the relation between transformational leadership and success of international development projects (IDPs). The paper draws on leader-member-exchange (LMX) theory and contextualizes transformational leadership style to temporary project environment particularly that of an official development assistance project in an African context.

The research is based on the processing of a primary database collected by questionnaire from 111 coordinators of IDPs in Benin. The structural equation method based on the PLS approach was used to test our hypotheses.

First, the preliminary results reveal that, in the context of IDP, projects managers are much more sensitive to the “management” and “visibility” dimensions than to the “impact” dimension of project success. Then, following the hypothesis test, the results show that transformational leadership has a direct positive influence on the success of IDP. Project team size does not play a moderating role in the relationship between transformational leadership and project success. Also, considering the effect of the specific dimensions of transformational leadership on IDP success, only the “idealized influence” dimension influences directly and positively on the latter.

Research calls for examining the role of team size vis-à-vis transformational leadership style and project success and calls in general for studying project manager's leadership styles. This study contributes to literature by answering such calls. In addition, the originality of this study lies in the evaluation of the influence of the specific dimensions because the exclusive use of leadership forms provides an imperfect and oversimplified picture of reality.