Team morale and leadership styles of project managers in China construction projects

Abstract

The relationships of project team morale and the supervisory styles of project leaders are examined in this paper based on P-M theories which assume dichotomous styles of performance-oriented and maintenance-oriented leadership. In P-M theories, leadership affects motivational arousal directly through a combination of pressure and support where the work structuring aspects of leadership, which affect motivation by clarifying paths to goals, are less central. Generally, previous research supported both P- and M-oriented leadership styles being consistently and positively related to organisational performance measures, although the M-oriented style of leadership was found to be more effective in functional organisations and P-oriented leadership was more effective in the engineering project field of temporary organisations. Situational contingencies in this study are assumed to affect subordinates’ interpretations of leadership primarily, i.e. the leadership styles reported by subordinates are assumed not to reflect the objective level of leadership behaviour. Instead, those measures reflect the amount of a leadership function that subordinates experience given their own personalities, cultural background and the situational contingencies that they face. The subjects in an exploratory study of joint venture projects in China reported in this paper reflect the influence of leadership styles on the level of team morale and project time performance in given sets of situational contingencies.