Project leadership in multi-project settings: Findings from a critical incident study

This paper identifies and analyzes critical incidents that project leaders – working in multi-project settings – encounter in their daily work. The empirical base for the paper is data on 48 critical incidents collected using a version of the critical incident technique. Results show that the most frequent issues with which project leaders deal are: technical difficulties, dyadic leadership and group dynamics, followed by consultant, client, and peer relations. Moreover, on the basis of a categorisation of project leader roles, in terms of management/leadership and external/internal roles, a framework that is referred to as the Overall-Project-Leader-Role framework, has been developed and related to the empirical findings.