Exploring the missing link between top management team characteristics and megaproject performance

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the demographic characteristics of top management teams (TMTs) (i.e. age, gender, administrative level, senior management experience and educational background) and megaproject performance, with respect to schedule, cost, quality, safety and technological innovation. The results shed new light on the effectiveness of different types of TMT. Design/methodology/approach This paper collected secondary and objective data from 208 TMT members in 42 megaprojects and employed hierarchical regression analysis to test the research hypotheses. Findings The findings revealed that age has a significant influence on schedule performance; gender has a significant influence on safety performance; senior management experience has a significant influence on cost performance; and educational background has a significant influence on both schedule and technological innovation performance. However, this study did not find evidence of a significant relationship between the administrative level and megaproject performance. Research limitations/implications This paper mainly focused on China’s megaprojects, most of which are globally influential (e.g. Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge and Shanghai Expo), however this sampling approach still limits the generalizability of research findings to other contexts. Originality/value The results of this paper contribute to a better understanding of how management team capabilities translate into better project achievements. This paper also provides implications on the criteria for selecting top megaproject managers to optimize the composition of the TMT and realize better performance.

Carrot or stick? The impact of paternalistic leadership on the behavioral integration of top management teams in megaprojects

“…From May to September 2018, we distributed our questionnaires to 55 megaproject TMTs with three or more members. Following Le et al (2020), participants were TMT members (including the leader and subordinates) who held principal, executive or general deputy positions in the megaproject management team, and participants per TMT were appointed by the leader (Carmeli et al, 2011;Halevi et al, 2015). Ultimately, a total of 270 questionnaires were distributed and 217 were collected, for an effective recovery rate of 80.37%.…”

“…To better manage megaprojects, governments typically set up special-purpose agencies or departments for their delivery (Sainati et al, 2017), otherwise known as project management entities, which function on behalf of the government (Brookes et al, 2017). Senior managers in these organizations comprise megaprojects' top management teams (TMTs) (Le et al, 2020), such as the headquarters of the Shanghai World Expo (Zhai et al, 2017), the project leadership team of the London Olympics Park project (Davies and Mackenzie, 2014) and the project alliance leadership team of the Sydney Olympics project (Pitsis et al, 2003). TMTs play a pivotal role in coordinating strategic decision-making (Lundrigan et al, 2015) and have become a leading force in the megaproject delivery process (Li et al, 2019b).…”

Managing Cost-Based Risks in Construction Supply Chains: A Stakeholder-Based Dynamic Social Network Perspective

“…Different stakeholders may have different goals during project development. When there is a diversity of stakeholders, their goals may conflict [10] and if expectations and interests are not met, it may hinder project success [11,12]. erefore, in a construction project, more theoretical and practical efforts are needed to effectively manage the two key issues of cost-related risk management and stakeholder management.…”

Investigating stewardship behavior in megaprojects: An exploratory analysis

“…Governments are crucial stakeholders for megaprojects, often as owner or initiator (Xie et al , 2017), ultimately on behalf of all citizens (Volden and Andersen, 2018). Furthermore, the majority of megaprojects have a client who conducts project management and delivery, which is set up as a special purpose agency by governments (Le et al , 2020) or directly from the public sectors or governments (Sanderson, 2012). Top managers in such organizations are considered essential to the organizational development and the megaprojects success (Toivonen and Toivonen, 2014; Le et al , 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, the majority of megaprojects have a client who conducts project management and delivery, which is set up as a special purpose agency by governments (Le et al , 2020) or directly from the public sectors or governments (Sanderson, 2012). Top managers in such organizations are considered essential to the organizational development and the megaprojects success (Toivonen and Toivonen, 2014; Le et al , 2020). They are a group of people who hold important leadership positions and are responsible for the project operation and management.…”