Impact of project managers emotional intelligence on megaprojects success through mediating role of human related agile challenges: Project management as a moderator

Globalization and competition drive rapid adoption of new technologies, leading to a rise in complex projects. Project managers need to know how to lead teams through the planning and execution phases of a project while keeping in line with the organization's objectives. In order to successfully manage complex projects, emotional intelligence is an essential leadership quality. Therefore, the present research aimed to investigate the impact of project manager's emotional intelligence (PMEI) on megaprojects China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) success through mediating roles of human-related agile challenges Inventory (HRACI) and project success factors (PSF), and project management as a moderator. The study employed convenience and purposive sampling methods to collect data from 533 project managers working on CPEC projects. The Smart PLS 4 software was utilized to evaluate the hypotheses. The results of this study indicated that the direct effect of a PMEI is not significant on CPEC. However, through mediating variables, HRACI exhibited a negative and significant association, while PSF positively and significantly mediate the relationship among PMEI and CPEC. Furthermore, project management as a moderator has a significant and positive effect on PMEI and PSF, however, insignificant between PMEI and CPEC, and negatively significant among PMEI and HRACI. The findings of this study are of great significance for project managers and project leaders. They will need to acquire the skills to prevent issues from arising, particularly when conflicts emerge, in order to ensure the success of megaproject. Therefore, current study recommend that PMEI appears to have a vital role in social interactions, promoting emotions of trust, efficient communication, and cooperation with other project teams in high-stress work environments like CPEC. Lastly, theoretical and practical contributions are discussed, as well as research constraints and future research directions.