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Failures in both followership and leadership become inevitable as mega construction projects are directed and controlled by toxic leaders. Consequently, team member's desire for knowledge hoarding silence is triggered and goal alignment between the leader and team members suddenly fades away to realize success in mega projects. Considering the growing importance of these rarely examined constructs and fragmented literature on toxic leadership (TL), team silence and mega project success (PS) in the global construction industry, the present study aimed to examine the effects of TL and project team member's silence (PTMS) on the success of mega construction projects. Moreover, the mediating influence of PTMS to link TL and mega construction PS has also been explored.

Drawing on survey data of 326 project professionals directly associated with mega construction projects worth US$62bn under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the conceptual model was tested with covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) using Mplus program. Scales were adapted from previous research to measure TL (with its five-dimensions including abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, self-promotion, narcissism and unpredictability), PS (with its three-dimensions including project management success, project ownership success and project investment success) and project team members' silence. Reflective–formative second order assessments were specifically applied to measure the multi-dimensional nature of TL and PS, respectively.

Mplus estimations revealed that TL negatively influences PS, besides forcing a culture of silence among project team members. Interestingly, the relationship between TL and PS is also negatively mediated by the PTMS.

The present study's findings are derived from data of project professionals (N = 326) to examine success in megaprojects under the CPEC. Hence, these findings may be re-validated through future studies on similar megaprojects (e.g. China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) worth US$8tn) that may also be predicated by TL tendencies, silent cultures and high-stakes involved to seize PS.

Policymakers, construction practitioners and other key stakeholders (e.g. departmental heads/supervisors) can take advantage of this new evidence to better interpret the success paradox in mega projects, and to reduce the spread and long-term damage of TL on team members and eventually create opportunities for PS.

The present study's novelty is manifested within this first empirical evidence on TL that breeds team silence in underperforming mega projects. Notably, present study offers alarming evidence on mega projects that can be easily derailed from success, as they continue to suffer from team silence and TL.

Silencing behavior among project team members (PTM) poses a potential threat to project results. Hence, breaking silence in projects is critical to motivate team members and beneficial for project outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) of project manager (PM) and silence behavior of PTMs. It proposes a mediating role of feeling trusted (FT) to fill this gap by conducting an empirical research.

A theoretical model was developed and a series of hypotheses were proposed based on existing literature. Then, regression analysis was conducted on a sample of 219 team members of a diverse set of projects in China.

The paper empirically shows that TL of PM is significantly negatively related to team members’ defensive and prosocial silence (PS), but not with their acquiescence silence. In addition, the study also discovered that team members’ FT mediates the effects of TL on team members’ defensive and PS.

This study contributed to the project management literature by showing that feeling trusted link the relationship between TL of PM and PTMs’ silence. The studies’ findings also contribute to the silence theory in project context through discussions of the rationale behind the main effects. Practical implication is provided for PMs that making the most of TL can reduce the silence of PTM, through building trusted feelings. The limitation to this study is the research setting regarding culture-related issues that focused only on projects in China.

This research is one of the early studies that address the issue of silence behavior in project context, which is a contribution to the coordination and communication in project management.

This monograph seeks to summarise the key influences of a role‐based perspective on leadership when making decisions as to how organisational resources can best be deployed.

Application of new frameworks provides insight into the leadership roles executives can adopt when part of formal, informal and temporary groups within the organisation's senior management team and those parts of the organisation for which they are responsible. The methodology adopted is qualitative, focusing on application of previously developed frameworks.

Adoption of an appropriate leadership role, and the timely switch from one role to another as circumstances change, are found to facilitate improvement in the ability of executives to mobilise organisational resources, and in so doing effectively address those challenges with which the organisation is faced.

A one‐organisation intensive case study of a multinational engineering company engaged in the design, development and manufacture of rotating turbomachinery provides the platform for the research. The research intent is to validate two frameworks in a different organisation of a similar demographic profile to those in which the frameworks were developed. The frameworks will require validating in organisations of different demographic profiles.

The concepts advanced, and implications discussed, provide an insight into the role‐based nature of leadership. The practical steps individual executives can take to develop their ability to adopt different leadership roles are highlighted.

This monograph is an investigation into, and study of the contribution of theory that provides insight into, the process by which executives effectively mobilise organisational resources. This differs from the original contributions to theory, which focused on methodology, data gathering and validation in contrast with the current study that is focused on practical application.

The purpose of this research was to uncover perceptions of information technology outsourcing (ITO) project leaders and project teams regarding knowledge transfer between client and vendor partners during opening and closing transition phases of ITO projects.

Qualitative methods and exploratory case study design were used. Purposeful sampling was used to identify ITO knowledge assets including project team members and organizational documents and artifacts that may provide information regarding the knowledge transfer processes during the transition phases of the ITO project. Sample criteria were ITO project team members from one US-based client organization and the company’s international vendor partners. The study population included project managers, analyst, developers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and other ITO knowledge workers involved in the ITO project from one US-based organization. Interview and document analysis were done using of NVivo Pro 11^® research software.

Four themes emerged from participant responses relative to the opening and closing phases of ITO projects including KT approaches to plans and processes; KT dependencies relative to IT project team member’s reliance on project tools, processes and artifacts; determinants of KT success or failure relative to project team members’ perceptions; and role of documentation relative to communication and distribution of KT outcomes.

This research may provide insights into additional aspects of knowledge transfer during ITO transition phases, which may be used by IT leaders and project teams to plan for successful knowledge transfer during the transition phases of ITO projects.

The purpose of this paper is to offer and test a theoretical framework that can be used to identify different styles of peer reporting, and explain why police officers and labour inspectors (do not) report peers’ misconduct.

A conceptual framework is developed that identifies underlying mechanisms of peer reporting. It aims to be an alternative for the blue code of silence literature and the general whistleblowing studies, which have a number of disadvantages. This newly developed framework is then tested in a qualitative research project in the police and the labour inspection in a West‐European country.

This paper concludes that, in the four agencies, the individualistic type of keeping silent is often preferred when confronted with colleagues’ misbehaviour, but in exceptional situations respondents decide to report colleagues’ misbehaviour to their boss in a fatalistic or individualistic way. This can probably be explained by the low group (and, thus, fatalistic or individualistic) working context. As for the police, the respondents are “case officers” who are solely responsible for the success of their investigations. As for the labour inspection, the respondents enjoy wide discretion and autonomy in their investigations. In the labour inspections a hierarchical silence code can be found among inspectors with low seniority.

This qualitative study is an exploratory study, aimed at theory‐building by developing hypotheses which need to be tested in future research. It is not aimed at making generalisations to other police agencies or labour inspections.

Grid group cultural theory could inspire practitioners who want to implement whistleblowing policies by recommending that whistleblowing measures, to be effective, should be adapted to organisational characteristics and the prevalent whistleblowing behaviour.

This paper offers a new theoretical framework to analyse and explain peer reporting in the police and other professional groups; not only enriching the police culture literature, but also enabling comparative research.

Shared leadership is an effective mechanism for managing project teams. Its performance-enhancing benefits have been demonstrated in many studies. Nonetheless, there is an obvious silence about how to promote shared leadership in Lean Six Sigma (LSS) project teams. To address this deficit, the purposes of this study are to investigate the influence of shared leadership on LSS project success and to explore how team psychological safety, project task complexity and project task interdependence influence shared leadership.

A multi-source, time-lagged survey design with a four-month interval was conducted. To do this, the authors collected data from 71 project teams (comprising 71 project managers and 352 project members) using LSS approaches in the manufacturing and service industries.

The findings show that shared leadership positively influences LSS project success. The authors also found that team psychological safety fosters the development of shared leadership and, more importantly, these effects are stronger when the tasks are more complex and more interdependent.

These findings advance our understanding of the factors that enable shared leadership and equip LSS project managers with practical techniques to improve shared leadership for the success of their projects.

This study extends the theory of shared leadership to the context of LSS project management and is among the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to theoretically propose and empirically validate how to promote shared leadership in LSS project teams.

This qualitative study investigated how small group communication influences the development of shared mental models in a committee of public librarians addressing a problem-solving task. It examines the influence of communication themes, functions, roles, and rules on the group's development of shared mental models about the task and about team interaction. Data were collected over the course of a year from group meetings, email messages, group documents, and participant interviews and then analyzed using existing coding schemes and qualitative coding techniques. The findings indicate that within the group there was a strong superficial convergence around the task mental model and the team interaction mental model but a weaker convergence at a deeper level. Analysis of the group communication data shows that the group focused discussion on understanding the problem and identifying tasks, enacting group roles and rules that facilitated sharing information. The functions of their messages focused on task communication. The findings suggest that, in this group, communication themes most heavily influenced the development of a shared mental model about the task, while communication roles, rules, and functions were more influential toward the development of a shared mental model about team interaction. Implications for practice include adopting intentional tactics for surfacing mental models at various points in the group life and anchoring the emerging model within the collective cognition of the group through devices such as narratives, objects, or documentary materials.

Discusses the value, workings and effectiveness of international project teams. Proposes a model to enable the creation of an effective team and process. Points out the need to manage diversity, intercultural differences and different nationalities. Uses a case study from Raleigh International to illustrate.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that impact the success of an organizational change within an organization under study.

Five hypotheses were developed to investigate independent variables as possible factors affecting employees’ commitment to change. The research is based on a three-step process consisting of a literature review and field research through survey and interviews. The literature review served to establish an important foundation for understanding the problem. The field research involved employees taking part in the change completing a survey. Individual interviews were also conducted with management level employees actively involved in the change process. The paper is an empirical-based case analysis.

The results demonstrate that employees’ commitment to change, in this organization, can be improved through increasing formal and informal communication, creating adaptive organizational systems and enhancing the role of transformational leaders during the change.

Sample size was affected due to the limited availability of employees during a specific organizational cycle. Increased sample size would allow further investigation about employees’ commitment to change. Additional research could be done on how the company’s systems and practices can be adapted to change.

The success of a change project is critical for its future strategy and major project implementation. It is crucial that a systematic process be followed to implement this change. It is suggested that the John Kotter’s “eight” step change management model be adopted as a framework to the implementation plan.

New behaviors are subject to degradation if they are not ingrained in social norms and shared values, i.e. if they do not become part of the culture. Managers emphasized that, even though they are creating a new team, they recognize the importance not to create a “Monster” or a new alien culture. Leaders must make sure that all new behaviors required for the integration become part of the existing culture.

The paper provides insight in some of the factors that lead to a successful organizational change and team integration. The paper recommends four steps to address communication, organizational systems and culture to improve employees’ commitment to change.

The traditional Chinese culture has always emphasized the authority of leaders and their “top-down” influence over subordinates tangled with “bottom-up” management. Paternalistic leadership can both nurture and restrict growth in mega-construction projects, due to the unique consequences (i.e. positive vs negative implications) for project teams. Hence, the present study aimed to explore the impact of paternalistic leadership (PL), team members’ voice (TMV) and team resilience (TR) on the mega-construction project success (MPS) in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

A surveyed-based sample of project professionals (N = 563) directly linked with the BRI was employed for statistical estimations with partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM).

Paternalistic leadership styles, including authoritarian leadership (AL), moral leadership (ML) and benevolent leadership (BL), significantly influence the mega-construction project success in BRI. The findings empirically validated that both BL and ML increase the likelihood of mega-construction project success. However, AL could impose a threat through its underlying negative influence. In addition, leaders with benevolence and morality have a positive influence on TMV and TR, while leaders with authoritarianism signal a negative impact. Furthermore, both TMV and TR significantly and positively mediate the relationships between AL-MPS (Model-1), BL-MPS (Model-2) and ML-MPS (Model-3), respectively.

The present study is a groundbreaking endeavor that fills a crucial research gap by investigating mega-construction project success in the BRI through paternalistic leadership, project team members' voice and team resilience in a multi-mediation model. These novel findings offer valuable strategic insights for managing mega-construction projects in countries with paternalistic solid cultural foundations, enabling project managers to navigate cultural nuances and optimize megaproject outcomes.