The relationship between empowering leadership and project performance: a resource perspective
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
ISSN: 0969-9988
Article publication date: 21 April 2022
Issue publication date: 15 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
While existing literature emphasizes the importance of empowerment in construction projects, the working mechanisms of empowering leadership in the project context are unclear. Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship between empowering leadership and project performance, highlighting the mediation roles of creative self-efficacy and leadermember exchange and the moderation role of perceived overqualification.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 287 project members in different projects and tested the integrated conceptual model through moderated mediation analysis with bootstrapping strategy.
Findings
The results revealed that empowering leadership was positively related to project performance through creative self-efficacy and leader–member exchange. Perceived overqualification served as significant moderator.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the understanding of empowering leadership in projects by verifying and extending the resource acquisition and investment process in the project context. The results of this study also demonstrated that creative belief and social exchange facilitate the effectiveness of project members' task efforts and outcomes and that perceived overqualification might not exert a detrimental effect on project performance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 72161021, 72162026, 71701083 and 71761021), Yunnan Province Basic Research Planning Project (no. 2019FB084), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (no. B210201014), and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talents Program in Jiangsu Province, 2021 (Project no. JSSCRC2021507, Fund no. 2016/B2007224).
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.
Citation
Zheng, J., Gu, Y., Zhang, Z., Xie, H., Li, P. and Li, H. (2023), "The relationship between empowering leadership and project performance: a resource perspective", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 30 No. 7, pp. 2969-2990. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-11-2021-1024
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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