Differential effects of contextual factors on promotive and prohibitive voice in construction projects: a multiteam system perspective

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the documented benefits of voice behavior for projects, little is known about antecedents of voice behavior in the project context, especially construction projects. Against this background, adopting a multi-team system perspective, this study attempts to investigate antecedents of team voice behavior from a contextual view.

Design/methodology/approach

This study identifies and examines six factors that influence team voice behavior. Specifically, project urgency, project temporality, and project complexity are identified from the project nature perspective. Satisfaction, trust, and commitment are generated from the relationship quality approach. Then, data from completed construction projects in China was collected to verify the effectiveness of these factors. Besides, the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used in this study.

Findings

All six factors are found to be significant predictors of promotive team voice behavior. For prohibitive team voice behavior, only project complexity and project commitment make significant effects. Further, the differential effects of these factors on two types of voice behavior are revealed.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on voice behavior in the project context, especially construction projects consisting of multiple teams. Also, this research enriches our knowledge on antecedents of team voice behavior in construction projects and thus affords practical implications to foster voice behavior.

Citation

Wang, D., Jia, J., Jiang, S., Liu, T. and Ma, G. (2024), "Differential effects of contextual factors on promotive and prohibitive voice in construction projects: a multiteam system perspective", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 1061-1080. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-03-2022-0264