The role of organizational climate in setting project goals

Linking public leadership with project management effectiveness: Mediating role of goal clarity and moderating role of top management support

Objective

Grounding on social learning theory (SLT), this study examines the effect of public leadership on project management effectiveness (PME). Further, this study examines the mediating role of goal clarity and moderating role of top management support.

Methodology

Hierarchical linear regressions were used to investigate the relationships. PROCESS Hayes (2003) Model 7 was used for the moderation and mediation analysis. The data was collected from 322 Pakistani public sector developmental project employees.

Findings

The results show that public leadership positively affects goal clarity (β = 0.049, p < 0.001) and project management effectiveness (0.032, p < 0.001). In addition, goal clarity mediates the association between public leadership and project management effectiveness (0.36, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the strength of the mediated relationship between public leadership and project management effectiveness (via goal clarity) depends on top management support. The indirect effect of public leadership on project management effectiveness is high when top management support is high (compared to low).

Conclusion

The role of public leadership contributes significantly to the project's success. The project leader recognises, enlists, and promotes the organisation's core competencies, identifies, corrects, and controls key rigidities, places a high value on goal clarity, and continually lines up procedures with the project's overarching goals.

Implications

Public leadership is crucial in project management effectiveness, especially in the public sector, where projects often involve multiple stakeholders, limited resources, and complex regulatory requirements. Effective public leadership ensures that projects are aligned with the organization's mission and goals and carried out efficiently, on time, and within budget.

From research to action and back again: The long journey of organizational climate – A review of the literature and a summative framework

Within management studies and practice, the construct of organizational climate has long been studied, its theoretical value, support to human resource management and organizational development. Despite the sustained interest in this construct, theoretical and terminological inconsistencies have hindered the development of a shared framework. For the vested interest of companies and their persistent use for change management, a summative framework is essential. This study is a systematic review of the major frameworks that are available in the field, and it attempts to surface and summarize the major components of organizational climate. Thirteen compelling dimensions consistently emerged at the foundation of the construct, and these dimensions are Communication, Supervision/Leadership, Team Cohesion, Autonomy/self-governance, Psycho-Physical Environment, Reward Systems/Structures, Innovation, Decision-making, Job Description, Role Meaning and Goals, Coherence between Strategy and Operational Implementation/Fairness, Integration and Dynamism and Freedom of Expression. For each dimension, an operational definition is provided. Therefore, a comprehensive map of the construct is provided for the benefit of academics and practitioners to have a common language and for the development of analytics to be validated across and beyond hierarchy, sector and regional boundaries and an instrument of benchmark.