Leadership competencies, teamwork and project performance:

Abstract

This study examined the mediating effect of teamwork on the relationship between leadership competencies and project performance among the Discretionary Development Equalization Grant Projects in Budaka district, Uganda. The study was guided by four specific objectives namely; to establish the relationship between leadership competencies and project performance, to determine the relationship between teamwork and project performance, to establish the relationship between leadership competencies and teamwork, and to examine the mediating role of teamwork in the relationship between leadership competencies and project performance. The study was grounded on Resource based view theory. Since the study intended to test rather than generate a theory, it adopted a cross sectional research design along with a quantitative approach targeting a population of 120 DDEG projects and a sample of 92 was determined using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) Table for sample size determination and selected probabilistically using simple random sampling technique. The study used a closed-ended questionnaire as a tool of data collection whose validity and reliability were checked by expert judgement and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient respectively. The pre coded data were then entered in the Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) V21 for data analysis using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression. The Med graph application for testing mediation effect was used. The correlation results revealed a significant relationship between leadership competencies, teamwork and project performance. The regression results indicated a positive significant relationship between leadership competencies and project performance, leadership competencies and teamwork, teamwork and project performance. The study findings further revealed that teamwork is a significant partial mediator in the association between leadership competencies and project performance, and heightened the association by 18.7% in the DDEG projects. The findings therefore, suggest that leadership competencies require the support of teamwork to enhance the performance of DDEG projects in Uganda’s local government sector. However, the study’s cross sectional nature acted as a limitation. Future studies should consider a longitudinal research design to address the limitation. Further research should also consider establishing the moderating effect of teamwork on leadership competencies- project performance relationship in same and other settings to widen the scope of knowledge. Keywords: Leadership Competencies, Teamwork and Project Performance