Confucian principles and performance: a contractors’ leadership model

The purpose of this research is to explore the mediating role of project leadership between Confucian principles and project performance from the perspectives of contractors. Using a set of questionnaires, data were accrued from 385 pairs of project managers and employees of contractors. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling to identify the effects of Confucian principles on project performance and the mediating role of transactional leadership and transformational leadership. The analysis revealed that all Confucian principles had positive effects on transactional and transformational leadership styles, and both had positive effects on project performance. Also, project leadership played a complete mediating role. Transactional leadership had a stronger effect on objective performance than on subjective performance, whereas transformational leadership had a stronger impact on subjective performance than on objective performance. Subjective performance had a positive influence on objective performance. This study provides a framework to help project managers better understand the effects of Chinese culture and Confucianism on project management and implementation.