Empowering the project team: impact of leadership style and team context

The relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective

Orientation: Understanding the relationship between a project sponsor’s servant leadership traits and employee commitment, trust and innovative behaviour.Research purpose: This study aimed to understand the relationship, if any, between a project sponsor’s servant leadership traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship and a project team’s empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour.Motivation of the study: Most project leadership studies focus on understanding the role and power position of the project manager, with very little research being dedicated to understanding the effect the leadership style has on the project team and project success.Research approach: A survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising project managers, business analysts and IT staff of a medium sized fleet management organisation that is in the process of implementing an entirely new enterprise resource planning system.Main findings: Through inferential statistical analysis, using structural equation modelling and path analysis, it was determined that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact on employee innovative behaviour, followed by employee commitment and trust via the mediator of employee perceived empowerment. Wisdom and organisational stewardship had a negative impact on employee perceived empowerment.Practical/managerial implications: Project sponsors need to exhibit persuasive mapping, altruistic calling and emotional healing traits due to the significant influence that these have on employee innovative behaviour, commitment and trust, albeit through their perceived empowerment.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to knowledge of leadership, more especially servant leadership and its significance in project management, which knowledge may contribute to project success