The relationship between leader-member exchange and project success in a projects environment

Abstract

The world economy has become increasingly reliant on project revenues as a contributor to growth, South Africa has followed this global trend due to limited opportunities and stumbling GDP growth. With the success of projects becoming increasing reliant on the performance of project personnel, there is a need to investigate the relationships that may impact this performance. Therefore, this study explored the relationship that project personnel-project manager interactions and project personnel-project organisation interactions have on project success in a South African projects environment. These relationships were explained by the constructs leader-member exchange, perceived organisational support, affective commitment and discretionary effort. A quantitative study was performed using an internet survey, where project personnel and project managers currently working in a projects environment were considered as valid responses. A total of 181 useable responses were statistically analysed using multiple linear regression to determine if the constructs had a significant predictive relationship with project success. The key findings of the study observed that leader-member exchange, perceived organisational support and affective had a significant predictive relationship with project success. A further outcome was that perceived organisational support had a moderating effect on the relationship between leader-member exchange and project success. These findings confirmed the importance of leader-follower-organisation relationships in a projects environment.