Project leadership revisited: A post-heroic perspective and research agenda

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Project leadership revisitedA post-heroic
perspective and research agenda

• Monica Lindgren Johann Packendorff
• School of Industrial Engineering Management
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Stockholm, Sweden

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• Since a temporary system operates over a limited
  period of time, there is not much motivation to
  investigate the management problem in itself
  instead the focus is on the task problem, so that
  one learns little about how to manage temporary
  systems from actually running them, as compared
  to what one might learn from running a more
  stable, functionally organized system. (Goodman
  Goodman, 1976 494)

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Why revisit project leadership research?

• Increasingly common leadership assignment
• Not always based in formal positions
• Undergoing a rapid process of professionalization
• Lack of critical research debate inspired by
  general leadership research (few PM researchers
  write about leadership, but almost no leadership
  researchers write about PM)
• Practical problems and inadequacies

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Aim of paper

• Review the existing research on project
  leadership.
• Summarise the problems and insufficiencies of the
  current research
• Notes towards a new research agenda, built on the
  current debate in leadership studies on
  post-heroic leadership.

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Main perspectives in leadership research

• The trait approach identification of inhererent
  qualities of successful leaders (psychological
  traits, implicit leadership theories)
• The style approach identification of
  behavioural patterns of successful leaders (task
  vs. relation)
• The contingency approach identification of
  effective relations between situational variables
  and leaders personalities (task and relation)
• New leadership research the leader as a
  visionary manager of meaning, leadership as
  processes of constructing the organization,
  critique of individual-centric theories

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Our reading of project leadership literature

• Individual focus
• Focus on traits and pseudo-traits (confusing
  what people are with what they do)
• Focus on the single project (relevant level of
  analysis?)
• Lack of theoretical reflexivity
• Lack of empirical research

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Towards post-heroic leadership

• Omnipotence gt empowerment
• Rightness gt risk taking
• Face saving gt participation
• Co-dependency gt development
• Masculinization gt femininization
• Single hero leadership gt shared leadership
• Leader focus gt leadership focus

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Towards a new research agenda?

• New research questions- Leadership activities in
  project-based organizations- Certification as
  shaping new leadership norms in PM- Projects as
  processes of power construction- Development of
  project leadership competencies- Project
  leadership as a re-masculinisation of work
  life?- Project leadership as re-vitalising
  general leadership?- Shared leadership in and
  around projects- Project leadership as
  entrepreneurial processes

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• New theoretical perspectives from New leadership
  research - Management of meaning in projects-
  Visionary leadership- Charismatic leadership
  (the new conception)- Leadership as relations-
  Shared and collective leadership- Critical
  leadership research- Leadership as processes of
  social construction
• Empricial focus on processes and interaction
• Qualitative research
• Finding new, less leader-centric, ideals for
  project managers and employees in project-based
  organizations
• Bring back inspiration to the field of general
  leadership