| Project management is an increasingly utilized approach to ensure organizational success, though its particular structure may leave organizations vulnerable to failure. Because of the possibilities of this approach, selecting project managers with appropriate leadership skills is required to mitigate risks. Some researchers have noted that gendered differences in leadership behavior exist, although this research is conflicted. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine the influence of gender and project manager leadership behavior on project manager competency. A survey comprised of a demographic questionnaire, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X-Short, and the Project Manager Competences Questionnaire was disseminated to a purposive sample of 156 respondents. Data were gathered using an anonymous, online survey administered through Qualtrics. A chi-square test of independence determined if a relationship existed between gender and leadership behavior. The categorical variables included gender (female, male) and leadership behavior (transformational, transactional). The results were not significant, chi2 (1, N = 154) = .39, p = .53, suggesting that gender and leadership behavior were independent of one another. A multiple linear regression was conducted to assess the predictive relationship between gender, leadership behavior, and project manager competency. The results of the linear regression model were significant, F(3,150) = 62.65, p < .001, R2 = 0.55, indicating that approximately 55% of the variance in project manager competency score is explainable by gender, transformational leadership score, and transactional leadership score. Further analysis of the individual predictors confirmed that transformational leadership was the only significant predictor, beta = 0.99, p < .001, suggesting that transformational leadership behavior is a key contributor to project manager competency leading to potential project success. While this study was supportive of previous research, which suggests that gender-based transformational leadership behavior contributes to project success, future research is needed to generalize the results using other project success measures. Continued research of these phenomena is necessary to improve organizational decision-making in assigning project managers to specific tasks and reducing the inherent risks of project management. |
