Unlocking Project Success: Addressing the Costs of Project Failure - Research Paper

Introduction

Regardless of all extensive research in the project management filed, sti8ll there is lack of correct answer to what can assist projects succeed. The outcome of project failure is undesirable since staggering costs to business owners and government every year, which must be fixed and addressed accordingly (Ibraigheeth & Fadzlidzli, 2019). Research also demonstrates that project managers' experience does not correlate with the success of a project. Thus, there should be other aspects than the project manager's competency when it gets to matter of success or failure of a project.

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Putting into mind what essential role confidence serves in different filed such as sport, education, and entrepreneurship, no study has been conducted to examine whether there is a link between success/ failure of a project and confidence in leadership. If a project manager is self-assured will be able to make the decision with a sound mind or be ready to execute decision already established, empower and guide his/ her team in the right direction, be inventive enough to offer to a tricky and challenging situation. Tabassi, Bryde, Kamal, and Dowson (2018)claim that more radically, a lack of confidence negatively affects the capability to manage risks and uncertainties, which are substantial for effective management of risk, a primary factor in project success.

The effect of leadership confidence as a success aspect in project outcome must be addressed if organizations want to enhance the performance of executed projects outcome and reduce rapidly spending in private and public sectors. Hence, studies need to be conducted on the effect of leadership confidence of project success. Therefore, this paper will be assuming qualitative study method on the research topic to help fill the literature gap that exist, which in return will assist to get a clear comprehension of the impact of leadership confidence on project success and what should be done to develop confidence that may decrease the percentage of failed projects that, ultimately, can benefit both, organizations and project managers.

Problem Statement and Justification

It is essential to underline there is a strong correlation between project leadership and project management, and this association substantially translates to success or failure of the project. According to Tsiga, Emes, and Smith (2016), every element associated with the development of a project is crucial, and the working environment for project managers and team to implement their business operations produce a particular relation and a necessity for leadership. The chief arguments presented in this study are that very little focus has been placed on the desire for leadership competencies as requirements from project managers. Even though there has been a fair amount of research carried out to discuss leadership and project management generally, nearly none has been conducted to selectively pinpoint particular competencies critical in effectively managing high-level projects in the manufacturing sector (Naeem, Khanzada, Mubashir, & Sohail, 2018). Thus, there is a need to present comprehension of the fundamentals of each essential attribute, which leads to project success and ultimately, the firm's bottom line, profits. This study will abstain from evaluating project profits; the research is solely focusing on leadership behaviours and their effects on project success.

Additionally, six schools of leadership have evolved over the past several decades; the visionary school discovered two types of leadership, transactional and transformational leadership, literature suggested that transactional and transformational leadership styles may be effective styles for project managers (Stewart, 2006).

According to Richard (2017), the total number of organizations, which attain 100% of their projects, is nearly 2.5. For instance, at IBM, less than 50% of projects accomplish the organization's goal of budget, schedule, and quality. According to Blaskovics (2014), statistics for project failures are even more appalling in the military sector. Ninety-eight per cent of projects are never completed asset, and three per cent of the completed project is put into practice. What is `more alarming is that 80% of "high -performing" projects are led by a specialized project manager (Richards, 2017). From these data, it is clear that project manager competency does not affect substantially on project performance. Therefore, it is vital to examine factors such as confidence in leadership to find out the exact aspect that essential for project success both the private and public sectors.

Nonetheless, no advancement has been made to increase the performance of projects. The most common reason for project failure is inadequate funding, poor strategic decisions, confusion regarding role awarding in team, poor technology choices, and, lack of time and direction. Nevertheless, research by Geneva (Richards, 2017) illustrated that 75% t of the survey's answer on the lack of confidence leads to project failure. If project success elements and breakdowns have been examined for several years, but no progress has been produced, perhaps, it is because the researchers have never thought of investing confidence, which is a cornerstone of leadership, essential to enable the project to be successful.

One of the primary elements of the project is a risk. According to David (2014) states that risk " is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project's objectives". Chances become common in the present market world, and it is impossible to work on a project without facing a threat (Taherdoost & Keshavarzsaleh, 2016). When the risk happens, the responsibility lies in the project manager, who is accountable for managing the entire project (Hillson, 2014). A confident leader is not worried to take chances on tasks that s/he can conduct and does not become anxious when encountering a situation that we not anticipated during the planning stage. Confident people do not have fear for the unknown; hence can face any situation believing they can overcome it. (Berger, n.d.). However, it is the opposite when the person is not confident. The unconfident person is paralyzed by the fear and is not able to make decisions or face the issues strategically.

Consequently, confidence is a desired skill for the project manager to manage projects to manage uncertainties successfully. If the project manager is uncertain, s/he cannot be able to deliver as expected. As Taherdoost and Keshavarzsales highlight, the failure to manage project risks can cause project failure and noteworthy losses, which eventually will affect the business objectives of the entire firm (Taherdoost & Keshavarzsaleh, 2016).

Contribution of the study

This research aims at narrowing the gap in project management literature by concentrating on the effect of leadership confidence as one of the vital factors for project success. The implications driven from the finding of this study will be used by project managers to guide them on how to improve their confidence, also private and public sectors that conduct remarkable costs linked with project execution.

Annually, the U.S. economy goes that a loss of an estimated amount of $50 - $150 billion from project failure. This is a considerable loss and U.S. states experiences. Regardless of the skills of project managers, projects continue to fail at a shocking rate. According to the Geneva research report, a lack of confidence as a critical leadership competency in project managers has led to upsurge project failure. This failure is systematic to be persistent regardless of project managers' skill, technical competence, or educational level, triggering projects to be delivered late, over budget, and hardly attaining customer satisfaction.

Significance of the Study

The study will be significant to project managers, contracting companies, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. This research ill offer comprehension of how confidence in leadership styles influences the success of projects in different sectors. This study will unveil existing approaches of leadership in manufacturing projects contractors will benefit by knowing to be able to approximate risks they are probably to experience whenever an incorrect leadership style is applied to their projects. This research will also inform areas of further training for project managers to equip them with the most appropriate leadership skills.

The Objective of the Study

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to carry in-depth analysis of how confidence in leadership is essential for a project manager for enhancing performance and ensure projects are completed.

Research Questions

• To study and examine the relation between performance, confidence in leadership and project management success
• What is the correlation between project leadership styles and the level of project performance exerted in a project?
• How are the project manager's leadership core competencies such as managerial, intellectual, and emotional abilities intertwined with the project's success in delivering successful results?

Literature Review

This literature review will answer the question of whether the leadership styles used have a positive or negative impact on different projects. This literature will, therefore, contribute to the answering of the problem in this project by analyzing the past work by many researchers. The research, hence, purpose to analyze the impact of project managers' leadership style. It also forms part of answering the question of how management can contribute to the success and failure of all the manufacturing projects. Answering this question will provide to the recent interests that had been raised on the same topic on the need for better performances.Effective Leadership on the Projects Effective leadership is used as a determinant in the success or failure of a project according to (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo, 2016). The same studies by Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo (2016) states that the impact of leadership styles applied by project managers within the manufacturing field. Qualitative methodologies have also been used to have in-depth analysis together with several case studies where analytical methods have criticized the use of effective leadership as critical determinants of the success or failure of a project within the manufacturing sector (Anantatmula, 2010).

According to Anholon and Sano (2016) and Badiru (2017), leadership skills are applied in various manufacturing projects, and these projects are deemed either successful or fail. I...