It takes more than the project manager: The importance of senior management support for successful social sector projects

The successful completion of projects is a major challenge due to the lack of leadership competencies combined with inadequate support from senior management. In the case of the success of social sector projects, there is a research gap in the extant literature. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of multi-dimensional senior management support on the relationship between leadership competencies and the success of social sector projects. The study employed cross-sectional design and the stratified random sampling technique to collect survey data from 232 project managers and project directors of social sector projects in Pakistan. The findings reveal a significant impact of leadership competencies on the success of social sector projects. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate significant moderating effects of communication, power, expertise, and structural arrangements, while there is an insignificant moderating effect of providing resources on the relationship between leadership competencies and the success of social sector projects. •Investigated impact of leadership competencies on the success of social projects.•Evaluated the moderating effect of multi-dimensional senior management support.•Leadership competencies significantly influence the success of social sector projects.•Identified moderation by communication, power, expertise and structural arrangements.•‘Providing resources’ was found to have an insignificant moderating effect.