Research On The Effects Of Construction Project Managers' Goal Orientation On Project Team Performance

Nowadays,Chinese construction industry is on a transition period,gradually turns from high-speed growth into a high-quality development stage.Construction enterprises are gradually transforming from asset and capital driven to management and technology driven.Facing the new trend of construction industry,the key to maintain sustainable competitive advantage of construction firms is to form a high-performance project team with internal knowledge and skills as well as external adaptability in each project.As the basic unit of carrying project activities in construction enterprises,the improvement of project team capability and performance can effectively solve many disadvantages and consolidate competitive advantage of construction enterprises.The attribution of forming a high-performance project team is the essential role of project manager.Project managers are the cornerstone of project teams.Their understanding of project objectives and the resulting achievement patterns affect team interaction and the overall team effectiveness,which also determine the degree of realizing the project team members' objectives,project short-term performance objective,and long-term objectives of construction enterprises.Therefore,project managers' goal orientation is particularly important for the members,the project,and the enterprise.Based upon this research background,this dissertation mainly contains four aspects as follows.Firstly,a theoretical model was developed to capture how project managers' goal orientation affect project team performance.According to the logical framework of social information processing theory,which referred to “social information source—social information processing—social information outcome”,the model considered project managers' goal orientation as the source of social information,perceived cohesion as social information judgement process,team learning as social information learning process,and project team performance as the outcome of social information processing.Two paths of how project managers' goal orientation affect project team performance through perceived cohesion and team learning was established.Combined with relevant theory,this dissertation proposed 17 research hypotheses in a logical way.This section is the core theoretical framework of this dissertation.Secondly,the mechanism of the effects of project managers' goal orientation on project team performance was verified by using empirical research.SPSS and Amos were used to analyze and process a total of 260 valid questionnaires of cross-sectional data.Structural equation modelling and bootstrapping method were used to test the direct and indirect relationship of those variables.The results of the hypotheses and their reasons were also discussed.This section provide support for dynamic effect research and practical implications.Thirdly,simulation experiment was used to simulate the dyamical influence process of project managers' goal orientation.Based on the results of empirical research,with the guidance of epidemic model,a modified influence diffusion model of project managers' goal orientation was established.The basic reproduction number was evaluated and the parameters were configured.Matlab was used to simulate the dynamic effect of project managers' goal orientation over time in the project team system.The simulation results were discussed from the early,middle,and late stages of the system.This section is the foothold for theoretical research of this dissertation.Fourthly,practical implications for improving the project team performance were proposed.On the basis of empirical and simulation results,management strategies and guarantee mechanism of enhancing project team performance were put forward from three perspectives of project managers,project teams,and construction enterprises.This section is the foothold for practical research of this dissertation.The theoretical contribution of this dissertation is mainly manifested in the following four aspects.First,it expands the leadership perspective of improving project team performance research.By introducing goal orientation theory into the analysis framework,the connotation of project managers' goal orientation with three dimensions,i.e.,employee development goal orientation,performance-approach goal orientation,and avoidance of failure goal orientation,were reinterpreted.A new insight into understanding the effects of project managers' goal orientation on project team performance was provided.Next,the social information processing model was innovatively used to explain the relationship between project managers' goal orientation and project team performance.It not only predicted the impact of project manager's goal orientation on project team's end results,but also concluded the proximal effects of social judgement process(perceived cohesion)and social learning process(team learning)from the perspective of social information internal process,further explained the transmission mechanism of project manager's goal orientation.Moreover,the empirical results revealed that different project managers' goal orientations have different effects on project team performance.Of the three dimensions of project managers' goal orientation,employee development goal orientation can significantly predict perceived cohesion and team learning,which can in turn promote project team performance.Performance-approach goal orientation can not only promote perceived cohesion and team learning,but also directly and significantly improve project team performance by bypassing the information process of project team.Avoidance of failure goal orientation is not very predictive.The negative effect on perceived cohesion,team learning,and project team performance is limited.Finally,a dynamic influence model of project manager's goal orientation within project team system was established.This solves the problem that previous studies cannot grasp the dynamic diffusion mechanism of project managers' goal orientation,and reveals the evolution rule of project manager's goal orientation in the project team system.Drawing from social information processing theory,this dissertation reasonably explains the processes through which project managers' goal orientation influence project team performance,and deeply explores the effects of different subcomponents of project managers' goal orientation.The results enrich goal orientation theory and provide new insights into project management field.The management implications offer practical guidance on how project managers can influence team members toward desired project outcomes.