Transformational leadership in a project-based environment: a comparative study of the leadership styles of project managers and line managers

Leadership is widely considered to be an important aspect of project-based organising and there are several reasons to suggest that transformational leadership is of particular relevance in this context. However, there is a dearth of both theoretical and empirical work on leadership in project-based organisations. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of an empirical study comparing the relationship between transformational leadership style and employee motivation, commitment and stress for employees reporting to either project or line managers. The results show that although project managers are not perceived as less transformational, the relationships between transformational leadership and outcomes tend to be less strong for employees reporting to project managers than for those reporting to line managers. Implications for future research on leadership in the project context are explored.     

A hierarchical structural model of assessing innovation and project performance

Research in construction innovation highlights construction industry as having many barriers and resistance to innovations and suggests that it needs champions. A hierarchical structural model is presented, to assess the impact of the role of the project manager (PM) on the levels of innovation and project performance. The model adopts the structural equation modelling technique and uses the survey data collected from PMs and project team members working for general contractors in Singapore. The model fits well to the observed data, accounting for 24%, 37% and 49% of the variance in championing behaviour, the level of innovation and project performance, respectively. The results of this study show the importance of the championing role of PMs in construction innovation. However, in order to increase their effectiveness, such a role should be complemented by their competency and professionalism, tactical use of influence tactics, and decision authority. Moreover, senior management should provide adequate resources and a sustained support to innovation and create a conducive environment or organizational culture that nurtures and facilitates the PM's role in the construction project as a champion of innovation.     

情商视角下项目经理领导风格对项目绩效的影响研究

作为一种关键软实力,情商对领导行为及组织绩效的作用已受到广泛关注。为了研究情商、领导行为和项目绩效三者之间的影响路径,在工程背景下,重新定义了项目经理情商、领导风格及项目绩效的维度,构建出"项目经理情商-领导风格-项目绩效"的中介效应关系模型。运用SPSS软件进行实证研究,验证出转换型和积极交易型领导风格在情商与项目整体绩效、各参与方满意度的作用中起完全中介作用,在与多元化目标关系中起部分中介作用;消极交易型在情商与多元化目标、各参与方满意度的作用中起部分中介作用,在与项目整体绩效关系中无中介作用;放任型在情商与项目绩效的作用中无中介作用。同时,情商维度如团队管理等对领导风格及项目绩效的积极作用,对工程项目管理及项目经理的选择有指导意义。     

变革型领导力作用下组织精益文化对精益建造绩效的影响

精益建造思想已经受到国内外专家学者和从业者的普遍关注,但是目前精益建造的推行效果仍不及预期。为了寻求改善精益建造绩效的有效途径,在理论分析基础上构建变革型领导力作用下组织精益文化对精益建造绩效的作用机理模型,并采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）对问卷调查取得的数据进行分析。研究发现精益文化中的价值导向和持续改进对精益建造绩效有显著的积极影响,而且变革型领导力在持续改进和精益建造绩效之间的关系中起到部分中介作用,而精益愿景则需要通过变革型领导力的完全中介作用来影响精益绩效。由此研究结果可以看出,建筑企业在推行精益建造思想时应加强精益文化建设,并通过领导者推动精益愿景和持续改进型文化向项目层面渗透,最终改善精益建造绩效。     

Leadership competency profiles of successful project managers

This study examines the leadership competency profiles of successful project managers in different types of projects. Four hundred responses to the Leadership Development Questionnaire (LDQ) were used to profile the intellectual, managerial and emotional competences (IQ, MQ and EQ, respectively) of project managers of successful projects. Differences by project type were accounted for through categorization of projects by their application type (engineering & construction, information & telecommunication technology, organizational change), complexity, importance and contract type. Results indicate high expressions of one IQ sub-dimension (i.e. critical thinking) and three EQ sub-dimensions (i.e. influence, motivation and conscientiousness) in successful managers in all types of projects. Other sub-dimensions varied by project type. Comparison was made to existing profiles for goal oriented, involving and engaging leadership styles. Implications derived are the need for practitioners to be trained in the soft factors of leadership, particular for their types of projects. Theoretical implications include the need for more transactional styles in relatively simple projects and more transformational leadership styles in complex projects.     

工程设计团队知识管理对创造力影响的研究:领导力的调节作用

现代工程设计团队的创造力与团队的领导力及知识管理水平关系密切,为了寻求提升工程设计团队创造力的有效途径,在理论分析基础上构建变革型领导力调节下的工程设计团队知识管理对创造力的影响机理模型,通过问卷调查方式获得 128 份有效数据。实证分析结果验证了模型的部分假设,研究表明:知识管理对工程设计团队创造力具有显著正向影响,并在变革型领导力对团队创造力的影响中起到部分中介作用;变革型领导力的德行垂范和个性化关怀两个维度在知识管理对工程设计团队创造力的影响中起到调节作用。研究结果有助于指导工程设计团队寻找提升创造力的方法,对于探索工程设计团队领导力、知识管理和创造力之间的相互关系具有一定的参考价值。     

Behavior of internal stakeholders in project portfolio management and its impact on success

Stakeholder behavior and stakeholder management are key success factors within project portfolio management (PPM). This empirical study of 197 project portfolios investigates the effect of the intensity of engagement (IoE) of portfolio-internal stakeholders on project portfolio success. We show that the effect of stakeholders is phase-specific and that role clarity as a measure of PPM maturity affects the nature of the relationship between the IoE of stakeholders and portfolio success. The effects of the IoE of senior managers on success are not clearly positive with regard to strategic portfolio structuring and are even negative in operative portfolio steering in established PPM systems. In immature PPM systems, line managers tend to take advantage of their position in resource management. Surprisingly, the influence of portfolio managers in portfolio steering is insignificant. Altogether, this paper shows the diverse effect of the IoE of stakeholders on portfolio success. This study enriches project research by applying stakeholder theory to the project portfolio context and offers practical guidance for further professionalizing PPM.     

Identifying,framing and managing uncertainties in project portfolios

Uncertainties in the organization, external environment and from single projects may hamper project portfolio performance unless managed properly. This paper introduces a framework on uncertainties and their management in project portfolios and pursues increased understanding on how managers can take uncertainty into account better. We explore uncertainties, how managers frame them as opportunities or threats, and the actual practice of managing them across ten R&D project portfolios. The framework on project portfolio uncertainties and their management is further refined based on the empirical results. As key contributions, we show evidence on the balanced existence of three types of uncertainties, the threat bias in their framing, and the dominance of rational, opportunity driven mechanisms of control in uncertainty management. We discuss the context-dependent practice of project portfolio management and the need to complement rational mechanisms with structural and cultural, for project portfolio management to become a dynamic capability.     

Leadership,regulatory focus and information systems development project team performance

One primary function of a leader is to motivate followers to achieve project goals. Based on regulatory focus theory, actors may strive to the optional situation (promotion focus) or try to avoid not meeting the minimum requirements (prevention focus). This paper focuses on exploring the effect of leadership styles (transformational and transactional) on the collective regulatory focus of project team (promotion and prevention) and investigate the relationship between regulatory focus and project teamwork outcome. Data collected from 154 IS professionals shows that intelligent stimulation, idealized influence, and inspiration components of transformational leadership lead to promotion focus, and exception management and error-focus components of transactional leadership lead to prevention focus. Promotion focus associates with a higher quality system and less delay. The relationship between regulatory focus and project performance is contingent on the level of uncertainty.     

基于关系治理的建设项目绩效研究

关系治理能够有效促进建设项目绩效提升,但既有研究缺乏对组织间关系治理与项目绩效机制边界条件的探讨.在建设项目背景下,以知识共享为中介变量,项目经理领导力作为调节变量引入关系治理机制,利用文献综述做出研究假设的基础之上构建具有调节机制的中介模型.实证研究发现:关系治理正向影响建设项目绩效;知识共享在关系治理对建设项目绩效...     

建筑业项目经理领导有效性研究

关于领导有效性的研究较多,但对建筑业这一特定行业的研究却很少。本文针对建筑业项目经理这一特定群体选取适当的绩效指标,从关心员工和关心任务这两个领导行为的基本维度研究其领导有效性。研究发现,领导行为对项目绩效有显著影响,“高关心员工、高关心任务”的领导类型最为有效,而任务导向型和员工导向型项目经理的领导有效性会因评价指标选取的不同而存在差异。本研究可为项目经理调整领导行为、提高领导有效性提供参考。     

Impact of relationship value on project portfolio success — Investigating the moderating effects of portfolio characteristics and external turbulence

Companies today need project portfolio management (PPM) to cope with the increasing number of projects and use it to ensure comprehensive management, strategic alignment, and efficient use of resources. Moreover, customers are demanding more value from their suppliers. The management of a project portfolio and the corresponding customer relationship portfolio implies a link between PPM and relationship management. By combining the fields of PPM and marketing, this study hypothesizes a connection between relationship value and project portfolio success. Because both parties need to extract value from a relationship, relationship value is divided into relationship value for the customer and relationship value from the customer. The results are based on a cross-industry sample of 174 German, Swiss, and Austrian medium-sized and large companies and rely on two informants from each firm. We find a significant relationship between relationship value and project portfolio success as well as moderating effects of portfolio interdependency, portfolio size, and technological turbulence.     

Exploring the roles of portfolio steering committees in project portfolio governance

Governing project portfolios engages different actors in organizations including portfolio managers, portfolio officers, top managers, and others who may team up as portfolio steering committees. While portfolio steering committees play a regular role in project portfolio governance, their role is still unclear. Through an in-depth multiple case study in three Danish companies, the roles of portfolio steering committees were explored. The results showed that portfolio committees may play three distinct roles in portfolio governance: a) communication and consolidation role, b) negotiation role, and c) decision making role. The results challenged the notion that portfolio committee meetings are the place and time to make collective decisions on the portfolio, rather, portfolio steering committees might unintentionally become or intentionally be used for other purposes than decision making. The empirical evidence of the study proposes that these three roles might be related to two governance design factors: frequency and duration of committee meetings.     

The mediation role of leadership styles in integrated project collaboration: An emotional intelligence perspective

Research on integrated project delivery (IPD) has considered collaboration satisfaction as an important factor for improving project outcomes. Yet, the potential mechanism influencing it remains unexplored in construction project management, especially in the aspects of human skills. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether leadership styles mediate the link between the emotional intelligence (EI) of authorized leader and four collaboration satisfaction outcomes perceived by other participants in an integrated team: performance contribution satisfaction (PCS), efficiency satisfaction (ES), relationship satisfaction (RS), and interests satisfaction (IS). Data was collected from 365 samples including project leaders and scholars who possess experience of IPD in China. The results show that transformational and active-transactional leadership fully mediate the relationships of EI with PCS, ES, and IS, and were partial mediators between EI and RS. In addition, the partial mediation role of passive-transactional leadership in the relationships of EI with RS and IS were identified, but its mediating effects between PCS and ES were not found. Similarly, owing to the non-significant effects of laissez-faire leadership on dimensions of collaboration satisfaction, this leadership style does not play mediating role in the relationships of EI with four dimensions of collaboration satisfaction. This paper makes contribution to the mediating mechanism research of revised full range leadership model by proposing collaboration satisfaction criteria and EI model in IPD project.     

Policy,politics and leadership in slum upgrading: A comparative analysis of Harare and Kampala

Slum upgrading is one of the preferred options in dealing with ubiquitous informality in cities across the world. Drawing on experiences in two African cities namely Harare and Kampala; the article focuses on the role of policy, politics and leadership in slum upgrading. This paper is based on interviews conducted with urban leaders and managers, politicians, slum dwellers federation members and government officials. With regards to slum upgrading, the paper makes three arguments. First, policies guiding upgrading should evolve gradually over time, taking into consideration lessons learned. Second, tensions in party-politics tend to undermine slum upgrading programmes. This is mainly because of the vulnerability of informal settlers who are often used as sources and resources for political agency. Third, leadership at the city level plays a fundamental role in diffusing party-politics and championing inclusive municipal governance, and development.     

Knowledge leadership to improve project and organizational performance

Conceptualizing knowledge leadership and customer knowledge management (CKM) in the project context is still rudimentary. Thus, the first objective of this study is to assess the associations among knowledge leadership, customer knowledge management, the performance of a precision instrument sales (PIS) project, and organizational performance. The second objective is to determine whether project performance may mediate the effect of customer knowledge management on organizational performance. The third objective is to examine the moderating role of data complexity in the relationship between customer knowledge management and project performance. This study empirically investigated a sample of precision instrument sales projects in Taiwanese high-tech industry. The findings indicate that adoption of knowledge leadership is associated with customer knowledge management. In addition, these analyses suggest that implementation of customer knowledge management influences organizational performance via project performance. The results also show that the positive relationship between customer knowledge management and project performance depends on data complexity.     

Leadership for future construction industry: Agenda for authentic leadership

Research in the construction industry is beginning to pay more attention to project leadership. Current perception of construction project leaders is largely built around power, authority, and task-orientation. This is due to the traditional focus of the construction industry on technical and managerial features of construction projects. However, greater challenges of modern times and increasingly different business environment necessitate a renewed vision for leadership research and call for a change in traditional perception and mindset about leadership in the construction industry. Globalization and fast changing nature of construction have necessitated a need for project managers to have and apply different leadership behaviors, competencies and styles. To highlight the need for a new breed of construction project leaders, this paper discusses the recent construct of “authentic leadership” in the context of construction projects. Authentic project leaders possess positive values, lead from the heart, set highest levels of ethics and morality, and go beyond their personal interests for well-being of their followers. They capitalize on the environment of trust and are able to motivate people and accomplish challenging tasks. Authentic leadership possesses high potential for development as well as veritable performance of construction project leaders. Proposal made in this paper highlights benefits of authentic leadership development in construction professionals and discusses the relevant practical and research implications. An agenda for research on authentic leadership in the construction industry is also discussed in detail.     

A competency‐based performance model for construction project managers

The role of competency‐based performance management is growing in significance in many industries and sectors. Unlike functional competences, which measure performance against predetermined minimum occupational standards, competency‐based systems are founded on the key behavioural competencies that underlie superior levels of performance. In order to identify the key behaviours leading to performance excellence amongst construction project managers, in‐depth behavioural event interviews were used in which managers were asked to recount critical management incidents, decisions and actions from which their behavioural competencies could be identified. By delineating the sample according to their performance against a range of role‐based criteria, the competencies defining superior management performance were determined. Statistical techniques were then used to develop a model that can be used to predict likely employee performance, which was subsequently validated on a second criterion sample. The research identifies 12 core behavioural competencies that underpin effective project management performance, of which two – ‘composure’ and ‘team leadership’ – were the most predictive. The paper explores the potential role and application of the framework in the drive for performance excellence within the industry, such as in selection, management development, succession planning, performance management and team deployment. It is argued that it offers an innovative alternative to normative micro‐competence‐based approaches that do little to engender performance excellence amongst the industry's key managers and professionals.