Impact of Project Manager Leadership Competencies on Team Performance: Evidence from Project Team Members Working in Construction and Development Projects in Peshawar

Abstract

The project managers' leadership competencies play a decisive role in the success of construction and development projects, especially in difficult places like Peshawar, Pakistan. This research study examines the team performance impact of four leadership competencies, namely, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, communication competence, and decision-making competence. A quantitative research method was used, and surveys were taken from 200 project team members in different capacities like engineers, supervisors, planners, semi-skilled workers, and quality controllers. The research made use of a structured questionnaire with Likert-scale items, and descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation, and multiple regression by SPSS were employed in data analysis. As per the findings, transformational leadership is the strongest predictor of team performance, i.e., it has a positive impact on the cooperation, adaptability, and dedication of the team members. On the other hand, transactional leadership, communication competence, and decision-making competence were positively related to team performance but were insignificant in terms of statistics due to high multicollinearity with transformational leadership. The model as a whole accounted for 96% of the variations in team performance, thereby emphasizing the importance of the integrated leadership competencies in attaining effective project outcomes.The results are of major importance for both the theory and practice. From the academic point of view, the research offers special context-driven proof from Peshawar, hence bridging the gap in studies on leadership competencies in developing regions. From the practical side, it underlines the necessity of skill-based development programs, where the main focus is on transformational leadership, but at the same time communication and decision-making skills are being strengthened. Policy-wise, the study recommends establishing standardized leadership competency frameworks to enhance project team effectiveness