Completion Date
Fall 6-13-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Program or Discipline Name
Project Management
First Advisor
Dr. Sarah Dyson
Second Advisor
Dr. Tedd Wheeler
Third Advisor
Dr. John Clark
Abstract
The software industry is expanding rapidly due to emerging technologies, innovative business strategies, and evolving customer demands. Software projects vary in complexity, requiring diverse approaches to ensure successful development from initiation to completion. This complexity has driven the adoption of continuous learning, lean principles, and agile methodologies. Modern methodologies prioritize flexibility, adaptability, productivity, inclusivity, and knowledge sharing. The choice of a particular method depends on organizational culture and project characteristics. The characteristics of the methodology will directly and indirectly influence team engagement. However, transitioning between methods can be challenging, involving significant costs and time investments. Recently, many organizations have shifted their focus to leadership styles and team engagement for high performance and active participation. The leadership styles heavily influence the team members, indirectly affecting their organizational involvement. The project methodologies studied in this paper are Traditional, Adaptive, or Hybrid. Along with the project methodology, the leadership styles considered for this study are Transformational, Servant, Democratic, Laissez-Faire, Transactional, or Visionary. This paper examines the correlation between project management styles and team engagement, as well as the correlation between leadership styles and team engagement. Additionally, with the collected data, the study aims to find any relation between the leadership style in a given project management methodology and team engagement. Establishing any relationship will help structure the teams and the project in software and other industries.
Research methodology: Conceptual framework along with the quantitative analysis is used for research. The survey was hosted through Qualtrics.
Data: Overall 92 responses were collected out of 77 responses were taken into consideration for the analysis. The rest were not included due to the incompleteness. Team leaders and team members participated in the survey and the participants were from the North American region, working or worked in the software industry.
Result: There is a significant correlation between the leadership styles and the team engagement. There is no correlation between the project management methodology and the team engagement. However, as a model, both the leadership styles and the project management methodology have a correlation on the team engagement.
Recommended Citation
Ittira Subbaiah, M. (2025). To study the correlation between Project Management Methodologies, Leadership styles, and Team engagement.. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.harrisburgu.edu/dandt/102