Impact of authentic leadership on project success through the explanatory mechanism of psychological capital and psychological empowerment in the contextual setting of Pakistan

The primary purpose of the present study is to explore the effect of the perceived authentic leadership of project manager on project success. Furthermore, the present study investigated the role of perceived psychological capital and perceived psychological empowerment as intervening mechanisms. A time-lagged design was used to obtain individual responses from employees working for project-based organisations in Pakistan. Data was collected through adopted questionnaires from 271 employees about the variable of interest. Moreover, then different tests are performed for model fitness, correlation, and drawing inferences. The current study finds out that the authenticity of leadership in project-based organisations plays a vital role in the successful completion of projects. Moreover, the result also proves that psychological capital and psychological empowerment significantly mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and project success. The present study was carried out in two-time lags, multiple time lags are desirable. Furthermore, the present study is limited to the context of Pakistan, cross-cultural studies are proposed. Scholars are encouraged to study the different style of leadership in the project-based organisation to find out critical success factors.