Agile leadership practices in industrial project management

Abstract

As organizations navigate increasingly volatile and complex environments, agile leadership hasemerged as a critical organizational capability. While extensively studied in technology andsoftware contexts, its applicability within industrial development projects, governed bysequential planning, contractual rigidity, and strict safety imperatives, remains underexplored.This study aims to examine whether and how agile leadership practices are applied in complexindustrial development projects, drawing on an empirical investigation conducted withinSonatrach's Liquefaction and Separation (LQS) Activity, Development Division. Adopting aninterpretive qualitative approach, data were collected through eight semi-structured interviewswith project managers and team leaders, complemented by direct observation, and analysed inNVivo through node coding, word-frequency analysis, and matrix crosstabulation. Findingsshow that agile leadership practices are present but contextually adapted: collaboration andempowerment, flexibility and adaptability, and continuous learning emerge as the mostpracticed dimensions, while rigid planning and hierarchical command-and-control structuresremain the primary constraints. The study's central contribution is a hybrid leadership model inwhich agile practices operate as an adaptive layer within, rather than replacing, traditionalproject management architecture.