Factors affecting the success of development projects: A behavioral perspective

This dissertation sought to examine behavioral-related critical success factors in the context of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) sector development projects in Ethiopia. The dissertation applied both a cross-sectional survey design and an experimental design in separate settings, and it is organized in five chapters. The first chapter introduces the study, describes the context, and offers a brief methodology of the study. Using a field survey, the second chapter highlights the role of team-building in explaining the relationship between project managers’ transformational leadership and project success. The study finds that team-building significantly mediates the relationship between project managers’ transformational leadership and project success. The study also indicates that both project managers’ transformational leadership and team-building are determinants of success in development projects in the NGO sector. The third chapter of the dissertation presents another empirical study on the moderating role of team problem-solving in the adverse influence of project uncertainty on project success. The finding of this study indicates that team problem-solving significantly reduces the negative influence of project uncertainty on project success for longer projects. The fourth chapter discusses an experimental study on the role of project beneficiaries’ psychological ownership in mediating the relationship between participation in pre-implementation phases of a project (particularly needs assessment and planning) and behavioral intentions to sustain the project. This study highlights the importance of project beneficiaries’ psychological ownership in the relationship between genuine participation and required behavioral intention to ensure project sustainability. The fifth chapter of the dissertation, Conclusions, contains a summary of empirical findings, a discussion of the overall implications, both for theory and for practice, and limitations and future research directions.