Impact of proactive behaviour antecedents on construction project managers’ performance

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.