The mediation role of leadership styles in integrated project collaboration: An emotional intelligence perspective

Research on integrated project delivery (IPD) has considered collaboration satisfaction as an important factor for improving project outcomes. Yet, the potential mechanism influencing it remains unexplored in construction project management, especially in the aspects of human skills. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether leadership styles mediate the link between the emotional intelligence (EI) of authorized leader and four collaboration satisfaction outcomes perceived by other participants in an integrated team: performance contribution satisfaction (PCS), efficiency satisfaction (ES), relationship satisfaction (RS), and interests satisfaction (IS). Data was collected from 365 samples including project leaders and scholars who possess experience of IPD in China. The results show that transformational and active-transactional leadership fully mediate the relationships of EI with PCS, ES, and IS, and were partial mediators between EI and RS. In addition, the partial mediation role of passive-transactional leadership in the relationships of EI with RS and IS were identified, but its mediating effects between PCS and ES were not found. Similarly, owing to the non-significant effects of laissez-faire leadership on dimensions of collaboration satisfaction, this leadership style does not play mediating role in the relationships of EI with four dimensions of collaboration satisfaction. This paper makes contribution to the mediating mechanism research of revised full range leadership model by proposing collaboration satisfaction criteria and EI model in IPD project.