The Impact of Leadership Styles on Project Management: A Field Study on Construction Projects in the Northern Region of Iraq

This study aims to define distinct leadership styles needed for project managers to accomplish construction project management successfully, and to assess the impacts of leadership styles on the efficiency and productivity of the project team, the study used three leadership styles (Transformational, Transactional and Autocratic) to examine in the construction sector so the populations for this study in general are going to be the expert project managers who works in the northern region of Iraq (Erbil, Dohuk, Sulaymaniyah and Mosul governorates), quantitative survey method was conducted in the February of 2025 via electronic google forms in both (Arabic and English languages) to ensure the inclusivity and minimized linguistic bias, the total number of valid responses was 144 answers. SPSS V.23 software program used in the statistical researches to analyze the data and obtaining results. The three leadership styles that have been tested in this study have shown a statistically significant positive relationship was found between the transactional leadership style and construction project management success in the northern region of Iraq, while no statistically significant relationship was found between the transformational or autocratic leadership styles and construction project management success in the same area. Accordingly, as the construction sector in Iraq rebuilds critical infrastructure, prioritizing transactional leadership traits training (emphasizing contingent rewards, active exception management and passive management by exception) could accelerate project timelines while maintaining quality benchmarks.