Empowerment and control dynamics in project teams: a multilevel examination of the antecedents and job performance consequences [abstract of doctoral thesis]

Construction projects are characteristically complex and uncertain undertakings whose successful realization requires interdependent effort and rapid decision-making. Yet, the project organizational structures resulting from the procurement arrangements in use perpetuate a mismatch between responsibilities and power, stifling flexibility and proactivity. Empowerment has therefore been advocated as a key to closing the emergent power-gaps, curbing the growing powerlessness and engendering the performance of individuals and teams. Empowerment, however, remains a diffuse and widely misunderstood concept, receiving only a piecemeal and fragmented focus in construction-related research. Evidence regarding the level of empowerment of individuals and teams in projects or how empowerment manifests itself is either unavailable or unreliable. To date, research within the construction industry context has yet to provide a coherent conceptualization and operationalization of empowerment and to empirically explore its antecedents and outcomes. This study seeks to bridge this knowledge gap [...continues].