Dealing with Project Management Challenges through effective Project Leadership:The Case of Zimbabwe´s Construction Industry

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, ( Atlantic International University ), course: Project Leadership, language: English, abstract: Leadership is a crucial component of project management in any development sector. However, the construction sector in developing countries has features and processes that make leadership even more vital. Construction projects by governments demand huge financial and technical resources and the project teams are usually large and diverse. The process of project construction management is long and involves a large number of separate and connected tasks. Good leadership is also crucial in government construction projects since poor performance can have negative repercussions for the nation and the general population. Thus, effective leadership is essential and can provide answers to the many challenges that the construction sector faces which has long term socioeconomic implications for developing countries. This paper investigates the challenges that are faced by government initiated construction projects in developing countries and suggests possible ways of addressing them through effective leadership. Several studies have been undertaken to investigate factors leading to low productivity, cost overruns and hazards among other challenges in specific construction projects but less has been done to discuss the general challenges facing construction projects. In doing this, attention should be paid to contexts because they differ. This prompted me to study the Zimbabwean case.