Adaptive Leadership Strategies and Project Success of Construction Project Managers in Jamaica

The lack of effective project leadership strategies can influence organizations\u27 performance to deliver projects successfully in a rigorous and complex business environment. Project leaders whose leadership performance is poor may experience business failure. Grounded in adaptive leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore adaptive leadership strategies used by some project managers in Jamaica to increase project success rates. Participants were 8 senior public sector project managers who successfully managed projects using adaptive leadership strategies. The data collection techniques were semistructured face-to-face interviews and review of company archival documents and artifacts from the organizations\u27 websites. Yin\u27s 5-step analysis was used to analyze the data. Three themes emerged: leader-follower relationship, stakeholders\u27 engagement, and hard and soft leadership approach. Project leaders who develop relationships with followers, engage stakeholders, and use appropriate leadership skills in different situations will address problems effectively as they arise. The implications for social change include the potential to create a positive work environment for team members and utilizing a multiple party collaboration with community stakeholders to resolve issues such as environmental degradation, construction waste, and sociopolitical challenges