Effects of structure characteristics of project network on conflicts and project success

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between structure characteristics of project network, types of conflicts and project success. Design/methodology/approach Network density and centrality were used to reflect the structure characteristics of project network. This study collected 254 valid responses from construction professionals (including project managers, department managers and project engineers) via a questionnaire survey and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping techniques. Findings The results showed that network centrality of project stakeholders negatively affected project success, whereas the effect of network density on project success was non-significant. The network density was positively related to task conflict, whereas negatively related to process and relationship conflict. Network centrality was positively related to relationship conflict and had negative effects on task and process conflict. Project conflicts served as the mediator, weakening the relationship between network structure characteristics and project success. Research limitations/implications This study provides direction for project managers and other stakeholders (e.g. owners, contractors and subcontractors) to appropriately establish social ties and manage conflicts to achieve project success. However, the potential influence of conflict transformation on project success, the dynamic nature of project networks and the network diagram were not addressed in the context of diverse culture. The future research should cover different stakeholders in order to get an integrative understanding of project networks and collect data from different cultural and industrial characteristics, extending and verifying the results. Originality/value The outcomes of the study provide evidence in regard to social network ties governance, which is comprised by the important or representative stakeholders, being a part of the effective strategy in improving project success. This study also contributes to the knowledge of conflict management in the project context, revealing the positive and negative of project conflicts and enriching the current understandings of the underlying mechanism of the project network characteristics on project success.

How does network position influence project performance in Chinese megaprojects? An inter-organizational conflict-based perspective

“…Second, the relationship between process conflict and project performance is not significant. This result differs from previous conclusions on the relationship between conflicts and project performance in the construction field (Chen et al , 2014; Wu et al , 2019), i.e. process conflicts are significantly and negatively correlated with project performance.…”

“…This research adopts the input-mediator-outcome model proposed by Mathieu et al (2008) to investigate the relationship between network position, conflicts and project performance. This research framework is widely accepted and has been adopted to the field of construction management (Le et al , 2020; Wu et al , 2019; Zhang and Huo, 2015). In this study, the input variables are centrality and structural holes (i.e.…”

“…Wu et al (2017Wu et al ( , 2019) also divided inter-organizational conflicts into these three types and investigated the influence the characteristics of the network structure and inter-organizational communication impose on conflicts in construction projects. Based on the research of Wu et al (2017Wu et al ( , 2019 and Chen et al (2014), the present paper divides inter-organizational conflicts into task conflicts, relationship conflicts and process conflicts. Task conflict refers to different views, ideas, or judgments of different organizations regarding the goals, decisions or solutions of the project tasks (Yang and Mossholder, 2004).…”

Influence of social media use at work on construction managers' work performance: the knowledge seeker's perspective

“…In this way, seeking additional knowledge to complete work tasks is common for construction managers (Yu et al, 2018). Due to the dynamic and complexity of construction projects (Wu et al, 2019), construction managers always need to acquire knowledge to fulfill their tasks. Thus, knowledge acquisition is critical to construction managers' work.…”

The Evolutionary Game of Trust in Public-Private Partnership Project Networks

“…In recent years, project networks have attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of project management. Scholars have explored the relationship between stakeholders of projects and their influencing factors and the evolutionary mechanism by using theories and methods, such as game theory, social network analysis, and empirical research, and achieved rich results [1][2][3][4]. However, as a relatively new field of research, these networks still need continuous and in-depth investigation, to extend the research parameters and to promote a better understanding of their development.…”