Siddiquei, A N; Ahmad, S; Badar, K and Asmi, F (2024) How and when creativity thrives in construction projects: A study of leader's humor. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 31(8), pp. 3377-3397. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose: The present study aims to advance a new framework to spur creativity at individual and team levels in the construction industry by studying a leader's sense of humor. The authors develop and test a multi-level model to investigate the direct and indirect effects of leader's humor on creativity within teams working on construction projects. The authors draw on the benign violation theory to hypothesize that a leader's sense of humor influences the acceptability of norm violations in teams, which helps to improve their creativity. The authors also integrate the benign violation theory with the social information processing theory to examine the indirect effects of project leader's sense of humor on individual- and team-level creativity via team psychological safety. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collected data from 165 members nested in 45 teams working on construction projects in China. The construct's factor structure and discriminant validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The authors used multi-level modeling via Mplus to test team-level to the individual-level direct and indirect hypotheses, while team-level direct and indirect hypotheses were tested using ordinary least squares regression. Findings: The results show that the leader's humor has a dual positive direct effect on individual and team creativity. Furthermore, these effects are partially mediated by team psychological safety. The implications of these findings to improve the construction management theory and practice are discussed in the manuscript. Originality/value: The current study contributes to the literature by understanding the significance of leader humor in predicting individual-level and team-level creativity within the construction sector. It expands the literature by examining team psychological safety as the underlying mechanism in the relationship between leader humor and creativity.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction teams; creativity; humor; leadership; multi-level modeling; psychological safety |
| Index terms: | direct effect, creativity, construction team, validity, construction industry, modelling, information processing, confirmatory factor analysis, psychological safety, methodology, construction project, management theory, indirect effect, China, construction sector, violation |
| Subjects: | occupational health and safety management, innovation and creative processes, statistical analysis, regulatory law, industry analysis, research methods, management, factor and component analysis, production management, Geography, analytical methods, project delivery, data science, evaluation and assessment methods |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, Design Practice, Legal Issues, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here