An empirical analysis of project manager's competency, empowerment andlearning in agent construction management system in China

Abstract

Open Policy has been implemented in China since 1979. A lot of measures have been adopted to improve the performance in different economic domains. Agent Construction Management (ACM) system was introduced in 2004. It is a new project management mode based on agency theory and empowerment theory. It is introduced in the construction industry to improve the performance of government funded projects.

This research aims to analyze how to improve project performance by improving the project managers‘ performance through competencies and empowerment based on organizational learning in ACM system. Local project managers‘ competencies are analyzed to find out the disparity between project managers in China and developed countries. The relationships between organizational learning, competencies of Chinese project managers and empowerment are also explored.

The competencies of Chinese local project managers are analyzed based on Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors‘ (RICS) Assessment of Professional Competence (APC). A theoretical framework is developed based on the related literatures and theories. Three hypotheses are established to depict the causal relationships between learning, competency, and empowerment of project managers in ACM system.

A field study is carried out to quantitatively test the hypotheses by means of questionnaire elaborated theoretically and situationally. The survey subjects are “A” level project managers in construction consulting organizations in China. 194 valid questionnaires are randomly collected from 75 project management firms in China. SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling techniques (SEM) using AMOS are adopted to analyze the collected data.

Most of the hypotheses are supported by the empirical data collected in this research. The empirical data supports that competency level is positively related to learning orientation. The results show that a project manager‘s learning orientation has a significant influence on his/her competency level. While, empirical data shows that there is no direct and significant relationship between competency and job performance of project managers, while empowerment has significant effects on job performance.

Based on the understanding of the effects of learning, competency and empowerment on project managers‘ job performance, measures can be adopted to improve the competency and empowerment of project managers, hence leading to better job performance and project performance. Though job performance is not directly related to competency, competency is still a necessary of job performance and can not be neglected. Project management firms should create a learning culture in the firm, and improve the learning orientation of the employees, which will improve employees‘ competency. Empowerment is highly related to job performance which suggests that project managers should be empowered to improve job performance.