Responsible leadership and project citizenship behavior: A cross-level investigation

Abstract

Project citizenship behavior (PCB) has an important positive impact on project success. Researching how to promote PCB is an important issue in project management. Based on social learning theory and social cognitive theory, this paper adopted the method of questionnaire survey and hierarchical linear model (HLM) to analyze the collected data derived from the sample of Chinese construction enterprises and verified this hypothesis. The results show that responsible leadership has a significant positive effect on PCB, moral identity mediates this relationship, and collective moral sensitivity positively moderates this mediating effect. The findings of the study systematically and deeply reveal the intrinsic mechanism of the cross-level influence of responsible leadership on PCB, and provide new enlightenment for the practice of project management.

How Responsible Leadership Improves Stakeholder Collective Performance in Construction Projects: The Empirical Research from China

“…Some qualities and characteristics of responsible leadership should be stressed in the manager training, including finding compromises in stakeholder conflicts through trust building, paying attention to humanistic care, and taking social and environmental responsibility (Oppong et al, 2017). In addition, construction enterprises could set up incentive institutions that encourage responsible attitudes and practices in order to guide project managers toward responsible leadership (Yang et al, 2022). When the project teams are managed by responsible leadership, conflicts between project teams and stakeholders can be avoided, and the stakeholder collective performance will be improved.…”

“…Zhang, Liu, et al (2022) argued that responsible leadership has a positive effect on employees’ low-carbon behavior and environmental consciousness. Furthermore, studies in construction project contexts confirmed that responsible leadership will promote team members’ moral identity and project citizenship behavior (Yang et al, 2022). However, the influence of responsible leadership on construction project team members and stakeholder collective performance remains unclear.…”

“…In terms of ethical guidelines, responsible leadership appeals to protecting the stakeholders' rights and interests, and it adheres to a standard of ethics and values in transaction processing (Voegtlin, Patzer, et al, 2012). Compared with other leadership forms (such as transformational and servant leadership), responsible leadership attaches more importance to social responsibility and environmental protection (De Ruiter et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2022). Regarding the behavioral characteristics, responsible leaders can achieve consensus with internal and external stakeholders by initiating democratic consultation and active dialogue (Lynham & Chermack, 2006;Maak, 2007).…”