Abstract:

Leadership remains a distinct characteristic of project-based organizations (Keegan & Hartog, 2004); however, it has been defined by various researchers as per their own perceptions (Yukl, 2007). Leaders mature through study, education, training, and own experiences (Jago, 1982), therefore they behave in unique ways. Diversity in project leadership styles adds versatility essentially required at variant stages of the project life cycle (Turner & Müller, 2005); therefore individual leadership styles/ behaviors can be credited for success in projects which by definition are unique in nature (Müller & Turner, 2007). Yukl, & Heaton (2002) categorizes a leader’s behavior as “task (clarifying, planning, monitoring), relation (supporting, recognizing, consulting, and delegating) and change oriented” which is widely accepted by researches. Thus based on the fact that a leader’s behavior shapes the environments that lead towards organizations mission it is obvious that he / she is mainly accountable for learning in respective organizations (Zhang and Faerman, 2007).

The acceptance of importance of learning in organizations has accelerated in recent years due to competitive edge it offers (Ghosh, 2004), however learning in the frame work of organizations has two puzzling yet related concepts; they are Learning Organizations and Organizational Learning. Learning organization concept propagates that the individuals learn, while the knowledge resides both inside and outside the individuals, whereas in organizational learning the group absorbs the knowledge and it is not stored (Ortenblad, 2001). The relationship of a leader and followers has been summed up by Fullan (2001) “if you don’t treat others well and fairly, you will be a leader without followers” (pp. 97-98), so it appears that learning in organization is reliant upon leadership behavior as well as personality of follower (Hall &Tolbert 1974). Garavan (1997) also found the need of maturity in followers for successful learning, therefore in order to a give an account of effects of leadership behavior on learning within an organization the concept of Learning Organizations has also been dwelled in this study to effectively draw its relevance to the personality type of followers. The preferences of selection from various dimensions of personalities amongst followers as described by Fiske (1949) as “Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness” mainly depends upon the type and nature of job on hand (Hall & Tolbert 1974), however for this study personality dimension “Conscientiousness” has been selected as a moderating variable due to its acceptance with most of the job criterion.

Besides the personality dimensions the all-important factor of gender also deeply impact the organizational environments / culture. Roots of these impacts can be traced / attributed to embedded differences of working and learning styles Ford& Chen (2001), family related constraints and opportunities, (Jamali 2009), ethical fusions (Kidwell, Stevens, &Bethke, 1987), peculiar eastern family pressures (Youssef ,1972), variant senses of job security, motivation indexes and risk/initiative habitats (Hooijberg & Ditomaso, 1996) of two genders.

Keywords:

Leadership Behaviors, Learning, Project-Based Organizations, Conscientiousness, Gender.