An exploratory study of the contextual meaning and consequences of empowerment in project teams

Empowerment means different things to different individuals. The factors that engender feelings of empowerment and the consequences that ensue are thus multifarious. Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) in semi-structured interviews with project participants in Hong Kong, the contextual meaning and consequences of empowerment are explored. Two broad categories of meanings were ascribed to the concept “empowerment” and related to “what individuals or teams feel or experience” and “what organisations or leaders do”, confirming the extant literature’s dichotomous conceptualisation of empowerment into the structural and psychological perspectives. Positive and negative consequences of empowerment and disempowerment were evident. The need to capture the different individual conceptualisations of empowerment in the implementation of empowerment initiatives is shown and that a contextual fit is essential for empowerment to take place

Do you feel what I feel? Empowerment contagion in project teams

Psychological empowerment, described as constellation of experienced cognitions manifested as sense of meaning, competence, impact, and self-determination has been identified as an important motivating force in teams with performance consequences for individuals and teams. Prior research have therefore sort to identify factors from the individual-, team-, project- and organisation-levels that impact empowerment cognitions with the hope of providing concrete targets for promoting psychological empowerment. One constituency that has been overlooked is the likelihood that psychological empowerment in teams may be capable of being transmitted from one team member to another. This paper reports a study investigating whether psychological empowerment cognition in project teams is contagious. Using survey responses from 380 individuals, nested in 115 project management teams, we test the psychological empowerment contagion hypothesis using analysis of variance, interrater agreement and hierarchical linear modelling as proxies. Analysis of variance indicates that the between-team variance of team psychological empowerment is statistically significant and substantially larger than the within-team variance. Several measures of interrator agreement also show considerable agreement (consensus) within teams, further confirming the prevalence of psychological empowerment in teams. Team psychological empowerment also has a significant positive and independent impact on individual psychological empowerment, even after controlling for the impact of variables previously identified as influencing psychological empowerment. Team members who reported higher levels of team psychological empowerment were also more likely to experience higher levels of individual psychological empowerment themselves. Psychological empowerment is contagious and can be transmitted from one team member to another. These findings supplement the traditional sources of antecedents of empowerment and suggest that team members play an important multiplier role in engendering feelings of psychological empowerment both consciously and unconsciously

Empowerment in project teams: a multi-level examination of the job performance implications

An integrative multilevel model of empowerment and job performance behaviours is advanced, building on social cognitive theory (SCT). Empowerment climate is hypothesized as influencing individual and team performance behaviours directly and partially through individual and team (psychological) empowerment. Using survey responses from 380 individuals, nested in 115 project management teams, we tested the direct, indirect and cross-level relationships delineated in the multilevel model, using a combination of OLS regression models and hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). Empowerment climate positively related not only directly to both task and contextual performance behaviours but partially through both individual and team empowerment. At the team level, empowerment climate also positively related directly to taskwork and teamwork behaviours and partially through team empowerment. The results suggest that empowerment climate and psychological empowerment play complementary roles in engendering individual and team performance behaviours and are therefore not mutually exclusive. The findings are also evident of convergence in management practices across cultures as well as different work contexts and further provide concrete targets of manipulation by organisations and leaders desirous of empowering individuals and teams in the project context

Performance consequences of psychological empowerment

The relationship between psychological empowerment and job performance, and whether three intermediate performance determinants; motivation, ability, and opportunity to perform hold the key to unlocking the empowerment-performance relationship dilemma are addressed. Using hierarchical linear modeling to analyse responses from 380 project management-level staff, the results show that psychological empowerment not only has direct and positive performance consequences, but also indirect effects, mediated by intrinsic motivation, opportunity to perform and ability to perform. The findings provide preliminary evidence in support of a comprehensive model of work performance that takes into consideration not only motivation and ability but opportunity to perform. Indeed, opportunity to perform actually emerged as a stronger mediator in the psychological empowerment-contextual performance behaviors relationship than ability to perform. The findings of both direct and indirect relationships however demonstrate that the relationship between empowerment and performance is more complex than previously thought. Yet, by demonstrating that empowered employees exhibit positive performance behaviors, psychological empowerment clearly emerges as a valuable path for organizations to pursue in their search for performance improvement in project settings

Impact of leadership style and team context on psychological empowerment in construction project teams

The empowerment process makes huge demands on organizations and its constituents. The team as the proximal work environment creates a social environment for interactions that can change individual behaviour, attitudes and perceptions. Leadership provides a direct channel through which individuals interpret organizational policies and practices. The impact of leadership style and team context on psychological empowerment in project teams was examined using data from a parallel questionnaire survey of construction client, consultant and contractor organizations in Hong Kong. It was posited that span of control and interdependence will positively and significantly influence psychological empowerment. Person orientated leadership style was expected to positively impact psychological empowerment while task orientated leadership style was expected to have a negative impact. No significant relationship was found between span of control and psychological empowerment while team interdependence had a positive and significant relationship with psychological empowerment. Task orientated leadership was positively and significantly related to psychological empowerment in the full sample and contractor teams but not in consultant and client teams. Person orientated leadership was positively and significantly related to psychological empowerment in the full sample, consultant and client teams but not in contractor teams. The distinct findings in relation to the leadership style-empowerment link are consistent with a systems perspective of the construction process. Client and consultant teams constitute a "managing sub-system" and rely on management of interrelationships (i.e. person orientated leadership) to succeed while contractor teams constitute the "operating/task sub-system" and rely on task performance (i.e. task orientated leadership). The findings add to the growing evidence of lack of support for the stereotypical views on how task and person orientated leadership styles manifest. In project settings where "getting the job done" and "teamwork" are inseparable both leadership styles can produce positive outcomes through "leadership adjustment"

Empowering project teams: toward an integrative conceptualization of empowerment

Despite its long history, empowerment still remains a diffuse concept; a characteristic that has retarded its development and appropriate use. The theoretical underpinnings of empowerment are explicated in order to provide a thorough understanding and the much needed clarity. Towards this, two distinct approaches to the empowerment concept, structural and psychological, are differentiated and their complementarities articulated. Integrating the managerial or organisational acts/practices supportive of empowerment (structural approach) and employee cognition of empowerment (psychological approach) presents a unifying perspective that facilitates better understanding of the dynamics of the empowerment process. A multilevel perspective that exposes a paradox of empowerment in project teams is also explored and the implications for research and practice of such an integrative-multilevel conceptualisation consequently outlined

Examining the role of transformational leadership of portfolio managers in project performance

Research into the role of transformational leadership in project based organisations has generally focused on project managers or senior managers and less so on portfolio managers who oversee multiple projects to achieve business objectives. This study examines the impact of transformational leadership behaviour of portfolio managers on project performance directly and indirectly through other intervening variables such as climate for innovation and innovation championing. Using a questionnaire survey, data were obtained from 112 project managers in a UK project based organisation. Transformational leadership behaviour of portfolio managers was found to have a positive and significant relationship with project performance. Innovation championing and climate for innovation both partially mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and project performance. The study confirms the importance of portfolio managers in enhancing project performance and identifies the need for project based organisations to cultivate transformational leadership behaviour among them for enhanced performance. It also highlights the need for further exploration of the role of portfolio managers in improving project performance

The role of corporate citizenship values in promoting corporate social performance: towards a conceptual model and a research agenda

Performance of corporations, under the stakeholder approach, is not measured in financial terms only; modern corporations have significant responsibilities beyond those to their shareholders. A value‐laden concept such as sustainable construction, which emerges from a multi‐stakeholder perspective, involves participation of the whole supply chain and incorporates the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Creating sustainable habitats has societal as well as economic implications. While the UK government’s Department of Trade and Industry is promoting CSR as a business contribution to sustainable development, many have argued that corporate citizenship takes shape at the point of government failure in the facilitation of citizen’s rights. Recent research demonstrates varying degrees of corporate social performance (CSP) in different sectors and there are differing relationships between CSP and innovation in the real estate and construction sectors. A conceptual model linking corporate citizenship values (CCV) and CSP through corporate behaviour (BCORP) from a CSR and stakeholder theory perspective is developed. The proposed model presents avenues for future research and represents a significant first step towards modelling the important link between CCV and CSP

The role of corporate citizenship values in promoting corporate social performance: towards a conceptual model and a research agenda

Performance of corporations, under the stakeholder approach, is not measured in financial terms only; modern corporations have significant responsibilities beyond those to their shareholders. A value‐laden concept such as sustainable construction, which emerges from a multi‐stakeholder perspective, involves participation of the whole supply chain and incorporates the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Creating sustainable habitats has societal as well as economic implications. While the UK government’s Department of Trade and Industry is promoting CSR as a business contribution to sustainable development, many have argued that corporate citizenship takes shape at the point of government failure in the facilitation of citizen’s rights. Recent research demonstrates varying degrees of corporate social performance (CSP) in different sectors and there are differing relationships between CSP and innovation in the real estate and construction sectors. A conceptual model linking corporate citizenship values (CCV) and CSP through corporate behaviour (BCORP) from a CSR and stakeholder theory perspective is developed. The proposed model presents avenues for future research and represents a significant first step towards modelling the important link between CCV and CSP

Congruence and scope for incorporating ACTIVE principles into project management competency frameworks

Project Management competency has been recognised as a critical source of competitive advantage and key to successful project delivery. For this reason it is important that the competency frameworks used to achieve competence in project organizations are effective and fit for purpose. The European Construction Institute (ECI) developed eight principles through the ACTIVE (Achieving Competitiveness Through Innovation and Value Enhancement) initiative in an attempt to add value to the delivery of projects. This research explored the congruence and scope for incorporating the ACTIVE principles into current competency frameworks in use by project organizations. An interpretive and qualitative research approach was adopted, using semi-structured interviews with eight Project Managers and Learning and Development Managers in project organizations. The use of competency frameworks is not as widespread as first thought. Current competency frameworks in use in project organizations are based on a fairly comprehensive body of knowledge and largely congruent with the ACTIVE principles centered around concept definition, team management, supply chain relationship management, communication, risk management, innovation, project execution and performance measurement. However, ACTIVE principles’ underpinning ethos of creating a collaborative working environment in projects is a missing piece worthy of incorporation into competency frameworks currently in use in project organizations