Leadership Styles and Team Collaboration in Multimedia Production Projects

Multimedia production projects—characterised by interdisciplinary teams, tight deadlines, iterative creative processes, and complex technical workflows—place distinct demands on leadership and team collaboration. This study investigates how different leadership styles influence collaboration, creativity, coordination, and project outcomes in multimedia production environments. Drawing on transformational, transactional, situational, and distributed leadership theories and integrating models of team development and creativity, the research employs a qualitative, multiple-case study design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 22 multimedia practitioners (producers, directors, designers, developers, and project managers), participant observation of three production teams, and document analysis of project artefacts. Thematic analysis revealed four major themes: (1) adaptive leadership fosters creative risk-taking and psychological safety; (2) directive leadership supports technical coordination under tight constraints; (3) distributed leadership and clear role complementarity increase resilience; and (4) communication practices and shared mental models mediate the relationship between leadership style and collaboration quality. Practical implications for media managers, creative directors, and educators are discussed, and recommendations are offered for aligning leadership approach with project stage, team composition, and organisational culture. Keywords: leadership styles, team collaboration, multimedia production, creativity, distributed leadership, qualitative research