The Impact of Flexible Leadership Styles on the Performance of Subordinates in the Project Management Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of different leadership styles on the performance of subordinates and to find out that, whether changing the leadership styles according to the demands of the circumstances results in better subordinate’s performance or not. There are total four variables in this study, in which three variables are independent and only one variable is dependent. The independent variables of the studycomprise Transformation leadership style, Transactional leadership style and Laissezfaire leadership style. The only dependent variable in the study is Subordinate’s performance. In this study we have tried to find out the relationship of these three leadership styles with subordinate’s performance. We have also focused on finding out answer of the question which is, whether changing the leadership styles according to the demands of the circumstances results in higher subordinate’s performance or not. The instrument we have used for this study is questionnaire and population of the study includes the project management organizations of Islamabad. The sample size consists of 120 respondents, which are from the selected projects. The results of this study revealed that in the project management industry transactional leadership style is more effective than transformational leadership style because transactional leaders are task oriented, which is the requirement of project management industry. Laissez-faire leadership style is most ineffective leadership style, which results in dissatisfaction, unproductiveness and ineffectiveness. The study also showed that, it is better for a leader to adopt different leadership styles according to the demands of the circumstances and subordinates.