The relationship between empowering leadership and project performance: A resource perspective

Purpose: While existing literature emphasizes the importance of empowerment in construction projects, the working mechanisms of empowering leadership in the project context are unclear. Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship between empowering leadership and project performance, highlighting the mediation roles of creative self-efficacy and leadermember exchange and the moderation role of perceived overqualification. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collected data from 287 project members in different projects and tested the integrated conceptual model through moderated mediation analysis with bootstrapping strategy. Findings: The results revealed that empowering leadership was positively related to project performance through creative self-efficacy and leader–member exchange. Perceived overqualification served as significant moderator. Originality/value: The findings contribute to the understanding of empowering leadership in projects by verifying and extending the resource acquisition and investment process in the project context. The results of this study also demonstrated that creative belief and social exchange facilitate the effectiveness of project members' task efforts and outcomes and that perceived overqualification might not exert a detrimental effect on project performance.