Impact of Leadership Styles on Project Success in the Agro-Industry: Case Study of the Cameroon Development Corporation

Leadership is a critical factor in productive organizational behaviors and its role in project management cannot be neglected. The purpose of this study was to explore whether leadership styles have a positive impact on project success in the agro-industry. The exploratory case study design was used to investigate this relationship. The participants were employees of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), between May 1, 2017 and March 31, 2020. We used convenient, purposeful and stratified sampling techniques to select the sample of 123 employees. A questionnaire was administered to the employees to collect data. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested and the alpha values of each of the three sub-scales of the instrument were greater than .70. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the results; in this light, we used the Chi-square statistic to test the relationships between leadership styles and project success. The results (presented in tables and figures) revealed that: contingency leadership has a positive impact on project success in the agro-industry; democratic leadership has a positive impact on project success in the agro-industry; bureaucratic leadership has a positive impact on project success in the agro-industry. The study was discussed within the context of the current socio-political conflict which is posing difficult leadership and management challenges in the CDC. The conclusion was that leadership styles have a positive impact on project success in the agro-industry in Cameroon, but with some reservations that the study was conducted only in one agro-industrial and the results are limited to the type of companies operating in the agro-industry and having similar characteristics as the CDC. Some areas were suggested for further research such as: analyzing more corporations in the agro-industry with different characteristics; and a comparative study to analyze organizations that are operating in different industries, like telecoms, schools and public works.