Centralized or Decentralized? Communication Network and Collective Effectiveness of PBOs—A Task Urgency Perspective

In the construction industry, there are a large number of project-based organizations (PBOs), where the efficiency of communication and collaboration among organizational members greatly impacts the success of projects. For PBOs employing both centralized and decentralized communication networks, it is worth delving into the question of under what circumstances which type of network will yield better results. Based on the IMO model and organizational learning theory, this paper conducts a grouped communication experiment involving 598 engineering management personnel to explore the differences in collective effectiveness of varying communication networks from the perspective of task urgency. Beyond task performance assessments, we have included organizational member perception to form evaluation criteria for collective effectiveness. Our research results show that under conditions of weak task urgency, decentralized networks yield higher collective effectiveness. Conversely, under conditions of strong task urgency, centralized networks demonstrate superior collective effectiveness. Furthermore, this study also verifies the mediating role of knowledge sharing behavior when task urgency is strong. This research provides significant managerial insights for the establishment of appropriate communication networks for PBOs in the construction industry.

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