Impact of proactive behaviour antecedents on construction project managers’ performance

Abstract

Purpose

Many aspects of social behaviour are manifested in project managers in interaction with team members in the construction sector. Proactive behaviour as a social behaviour impacts on project and organizational effectiveness. This paper aims to explore and explain how project managers’ proactive behaviour could be enhanced in a project by the use of integrated collaborative environments. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

To investigate this interrelationship, researchers used a survey methodology involving gathering both quantitative and qualitative data, and used regression analysis to assess the strength of impact of proactive behaviour antecedents on project manages’ performance on a construction project when using integrated collaborative technologies. For the qualitative data, researchers used content analysis.

Findings

The research showed that by developing a proactive personality, the construction project manager is more likely to pre-identify “accurately” project time and costs, and to identify project culture, collaboration strategy and project risks. Moreover, co-worker trust as a proactive behaviour antecedent has been shown to impact on raising quality issues in a project. Furthermore, project managers’ flexibility could assist them in designing procurement strategies as well as designing a project business plan and avoiding conflict. Nevertheless, flexibility, including self-efficacy, control appraisal, change orientation, job autonomy and supportive supervision, plays a significant role in the development of proactive behaviour in construction project managers and enhances project performance.

Research limitations/implications

The sample is limited, but the research methodology is acceptable because the authors use mixed approach to check the correlation.

Practical implications

How project managers can use integrated collaborative technologies on developing their proactive behaviour and thus impacting project performance is observed.

Originality/value

The value of this paper is to contribute understanding of the impact of the use of integrated collaborative technologies on developing project managers’ proactive behaviour and thus impacting project performance.

Citation

Kapogiannis, G., Fernando, T. and Alkhard, A.M. (2021), "Impact of proactive behaviour antecedents on construction project managers’ performance", Construction Innovation, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 708-722. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-02-2020-0029