Impact of Transactional and Transformational Leadership on Project Success in the IT Sector of Pakistan: The Mediating Role of Innovative Work Behavior

This study explores the impact of transactional leadership (TRL) and transformational leadership (TL) on project success (PS) in the IT sector of Pakistan, with a particular focus on the mediating role of innovative work behavior (IWB). Adopting a positivist philosophical viewpoint and a deductive approach, the research utilized a quantitative method, collecting primary data through a survey of 240 respondents from various IT organizations. Statistical analyses, including correlation and regression analysis, as well as Hayes’s mediation method and SEM Amos, were employed to evaluate the relationships between the variables. The findings indicate that both TRL and TL have a statistically significant positive impact on PS, though they account for a small portion of the variance in PS. IWB was found to partially mediate the relationship between TRL and PS, and to a lesser extent, between TL and PS. The results underscore the importance of IWB in enhancing the effects of TRL and TL on project success. The implications of these findings suggest that project managers should integrate these leadership styles and support innovative work behavior to improve project success. Future research is encouraged to investigate these dynamics in different contexts to develop more universally applicable leadership strategies in project management.