A Study On The Influence Of Role Behaviors Of Construction Project Managers On Knowledge Transfer In The Project Context

Now in konowledge economy era,konowledge has been an important organizational resource and the base of organizational capability,so knowledge acquisition,integration and utilization play a key role in gaining and maintaining organizational competitive advantages.Construction projects are basic units for a construction enterprise,and the process of project implementation is not only the process of knowledge application,but also the process of knowledge learning and integration.Knowledge transfer in project environment will contribute to project success as well as expanding the knowledge stock and improving knowledge quality of construction enterprises so as to strengthen organizational competitive advantage.Thus,knowledge transfer in project environment is given more and more attention in both management practice and theoretical research.Knowledge transfer in project environment mainly contains two aspects:knowledge tranfer within the construction project team and knowledge tranfer between the team and other participants involved in the project.As the top leaders of project teams,construction project managers can not only affect the attitudes and behaviors of team members,but also represent the team in transactions and building favorable relationships with other participants,thus having an effect on intra/inter-team knowledge transfer during project implementation process.Meanwhile,konowledge is a kind of core asset and the source of competition advantage for individuals and organizations.And ingeneral,it is difficult to achieve successful knowledge tranfer if knowledge owners donot have good relationship with the other party.Lots of existing research has discussed the influence of leaders' role behaviors and relationship quality on knowledge tranfer,but how they influence on knowledge tranfer is still not very clear.And releated research on the topic in construction project context is very insufficient,especially for empirical research.Therefore,it is necessary to probe into the the influence mechanism of role behaviors of construction project managers on knowledge tranfer in the project' context based on the perspective of relationship quality.Focused on the research topic,firstly,some colsely related theories systematically presented and the current research about role behaviors of construction project managers,project relatinonship quality and knowledge transfer in the project context is reviewed.Secondly,on the basis of analysis about construction project managers'responsibility,authority and roles in project management,the concept and dimensions of role behaviors of project managers are clarified,and knowledge transfer in a project context is analyzed.Then,based on the perspective of relationship quality,the influence processes of internal and external role behaviors of project managers on intra/inter-team knowledge transfer are analyzed respectively,and theory models and ralated hypotheses are put forward.Fourthly,structural equation modeling method is used to test the theory hypotheses with the data collected by questionnaires which are finished by construction team members,then the results are discussed and some suggestions are put forward to promote knowledge transfer in project environment.Finally,main research results are concluded,some research innovation and further prospects are proposed.According to the research results,some conclusions are summarized as follows:(1)Standing on the point of construction project teams,role behaviors of construction project managers can be divided into internal and external role behaviors.Internal role behaviors,which are mainly manifested by leadership behaviors,includes task-oriented behaviors,relations-oriented behaviors and behaviors of leading by example;external role behaviors,which are mainly manifested by communication and liaison with other project participants,includes task communication and coordination and networking behaviors.(2)There is a close relation between the three dimensions of relationship quality of project team members.Team trust is positively correlated with team communication;both team trust and team communication have a significantly positive effect on team support.Similarly,there is also a close relation between the three dimensions of relationship quality bewteen project team and other project participants.Inter-organizational trust has a significantly positive effect on relationship commitment and relationship satisfaction;relationship commitment has a significantly positive effect on relationship satisfaction.(3)The empirical research of the relational model that describes how leadership behaviors of construction project managers influence intra-team knowledge transfer shows that team trust,communication and support mediate the relationship between task-oriented behaviors,relations-oriented behaviors and intra-team knowledge transfer;the behaviors of leading by example is positively correlated with intra-team knowledge transfer,but it does not have a significant effect on team trust,communication and support,so how it influence on intra-team knowledge transfer need to be explored furtherly.(4)As for test results of the relational model that describes how external role behaviors of construction project managers influence on inter-team knowledge transfer,it shows that the effect of task communication and coordination on relationship commitment is not significant;both inter-organizational trust and relationship satisfaction mediate the relationship between task communication and coordination and inter-team knowledge transfer;inter-organizational trust,relationship commitment and relationship satisfaction mediate the relationship between networking behaviors and inter-team knowledge transfer.Standing on the point of construction project teams,the definition and dimensions of role behaviors of construction project managers are analyzed,which helps to promote the development and expand application fields of leadership behavior theory.Meanwhile,role behaviors of construction project managers,project relatinonship quality and knowledge transfer are incorporated into a research framework,and the relational model about role behaviors of project managers?relatinonship qualityknowledge transfer is put forward,which can rich the theoretical research of project management and knowledge management field.Then structural equation modeling method is used to test the theory hypotheses,which shows that different dimensions of project managers' role behaviors vary in their effectiveness in knowledge transfer effectiveness.This can offer the reference for project managers to strengthen knowledge management and therefore improve the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in project context.