2.1. Green Building
Sustainable development and environmental protection have become a major focus for the Chinese government. Existing buildings consume a high amount of energy and materials, while the greenhouse gases released are also significant [
12]. In order to meet the demands of society and reduce the energy consumption of the construction industry, green building emerged as a solution during the green movement from the 1970s to 1980s [
7]. Attempts have been made to determine alternative means of traditional construction, aimed at saving energy and reducing environmental pollution. Accordingly, GBC is an important means of reducing environmental pollution and improving quality of life [
13]. Green building is one of measures been put forward to mitigate significant impacts of the building stock on the environment, society, and economy [
14]. During design and construction, green buildings use recycled materials, less water, less energy, and resource efficient techniques, thereby reducing the impact on the environment [
15]. In this paper, green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout the building life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition [
16].
The key success indicators of green building projects have a wide range of definitions and various systems, because of the differences in cultural and climatic conditions in every country or region. However, through the literature analysis, it was found that various definitions of the key success indicators of green building projects have the same values; that is, minimal destruction of the environmental system. As the first environmental certification system, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was established in the United Kingdom in 1990. It mainly includes the following nine aspects: management, health, and comfort, energy, transportation, water, materials, land use and ecology, garbage, and pollution [
17]. The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which is the most widely used in the world, consists of seven systems and numerous indicators, namely sustainable building sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, resources and materials, indoor air quality, innovations in design, and regional priority [
18]. Several other evaluation systems exist, such as the Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) in Japan, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) in Germany, and the Building Environmental Assessment Method (BEAM) in Hong Kong, which are based on similar key indicators. Various scholars have studied the green building key success indicators based on the above evaluation systems. The majority of the research has been aimed at identifying the key success factors of green building from the perspective of the entire life cycle. However, the object of this study is the contractor project manager, and in identifying key success indicators for green buildings, the author focuses on analyzing and studying the relevant aspects of green construction. Kibert introduced seven principles for implementing sustainable construction practices: conserving to minimize resource consumption, reusing to maximize the reuse of resources, recycling to use renewable or recyclable resources, protecting nature, using nontoxic materials to create a healthy, nontoxic environment, economic benefits (to apply life cycle cost analysis), and providing quality products [
19]. High-performance green buildings provide improved indoor environmental quality and reduced energy consumption, resulting in lower operational costs, easier learning and healthier environments in schools, higher productivity for office employees, and reduced sick time for occupants in all building types [
10]. The development of sustainable buildings should also consider the site conditions, vegetation, pollution, and other building characteristics [
20]. When Tabassi studied the problem of project manager leadership in sustainable building projects, he summarized the success indicators of green buildings in six parts: energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, sustainable site planning and management, materials and resources, water efficiency, and innovation [
3]. Mattoni made a comparative study of various evaluation systems and defined six new macro-aggregation areas (site, water, energy, comfort and safety, materials and outdoor quality) [
21]. Ye studied the development of green building standards in China, where 17 national and trade standards as well as more than 50 local standards exist [
22]. Among all of these evaluation standards, the Evaluation Standard for Green Building (GB/T50378-2014) is the most popular, and includes construction management, land use, outdoor environment utilization, energy saving, material saving, water saving, indoor environmental quality, and operation management.
The above green building evaluation criteria and key success indicators have encouraged developers to reduce the degree of environmental damage and save energy. Accordingly, when determining the key success indicators, the author considers the relevant aspects of the contractor project manager. Compared to traditional architecture, the key success factors for green construction include cost, duration, and quality, among others. The reasons for the selection are as follows. (1) The following four key success indicators can reflect the objectives of the construction project objectives; (2) These factors all appear in the green building evaluation system. In order to obtain LEED or BREEAM authentication, the building must meet these standards following the completion of construction; (3) These indicators respond to the requirements of the Chinese government in terms of saving materials and reducing energy consumption; (4) The “land saving” index was not included because it was determined by the architect at the design stage. The final four green building key success indicators are displayed in
Table 1.
2.2. Competencies of the Project Manager in Construction
In order to meet the new demands for saving energy and environmental friendliness in the construction industry, there has been increasing attention within research and development on the need to improve the performance of construction project managers. This attention stems from the influence of the project manager competency and authority on the project performance [
23]. Despite the rapid developments in science and technology, construction remains a human-intensive industry, with the majority of the project manager focus still being on the organization and the management of staff [
24]. Project managers possess different working backgrounds and cultural knowledge, and their competencies should be standardized. The manner in which to select an effective project manager has always been a hot topic in the engineering management field. The review of project manager competencies indicates that this has been broadly studied in numerous fields, such as human resource management and organization management.
Several versions of the definition for the project manager competencies exist: the project manager competency development (PMCD) defines three project manager competency areas, namely knowledge, performance, and personal competencies [
25]. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has created 24 basic competencies for an engineer, such as problem recognition and solving, risk and uncertainty, project management, communication, public policy, business and public administration, globalization, leadership, teamwork, attitudes, lifelong learning, and professional and ethical responsibility [
26]. Dainty developed a competency-based framework for performance in projects, which includes information seeking, team leadership, and impact and influence [
1]. In an interview with Perini, who is the commissioner of the Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM), he mentioned the top 10 qualities of project managers, such as possessing superior technical skills, building and maintaining effective team dynamics, communicating effectively, working hard, focusing on client needs, making safety a top priority, remaining calm under pressure, always asking the right questions, and taking responsibility and appropriate risks in order to achieve excellence and leadership [
27]. According to the context of western scholars’ research, the author proposed two dimensions of project manager competencies, which are basic literacy (BL) and target management (TM). In PMBOK, the definition of “project manager” is described first, and the basic literacy of the project manager are further proposed. The competencies of these two dimensions mainly measure the work ability and knowledge level of project managers. Now there are regulations (People’s Republic of China Certified Constructor) in China, only registered constructor can be a project manager. But the conditions for registering a constructor are very broad, anyone with an engineering or economic degree can apply. Based on the current situation in China, Zhang proposed a popular competency system for project managers in China, including four dimensions and 18 indicators [
28]. ZHANG emphasized that Chinese companies valued leadership and organization skills (LO) and emotional intelligence (EI) in selecting project managers [
28]. Therefore:
This article proposes four dimensions for the competency index of project managers: leadership and organization, basic literacy, target management, and emotional intelligence. The proposed competencies of the project manager as shown in
Table 2.
In this study, leadership and organization refers to a competency that integrates the members of the project department and let them work efficiently under the correct leadership. Leadership is considered a major factor in promoting project success. Leadership and organizational competency are regarded as essential skills for project managers, and also applicable in green building projects. In a construction project, as a temporary organization, the ability to work within a team is the most basic and necessary competency for project managers [
29]. Engaging in communication is also a skill that the project manager must have. Communication or social skills means that individuals possess the ability to interact with customers and other stakeholders effectively [
30]. In the construction process, communication has always been the driving factor of the project, where both making goals and solving conflict need to be communicated with employees. Coordinating work among departments is also an important task for the project manager. Zhang’s research demonstrated that the project manager needs to communicate and coordinate the internal needs of the project team with other stakeholders, such as real estate developers, supervision units, subcontractors, and other stakeholders. Therefore:
Hypothesis 1 (H1). The leadership and organization of the project manager has a positive effect on the success of GBC.
Basic literacy is defined as the professional learning background for project managers, including the ability to continue learning. In China, project managers should be familiar with two aspects of knowledge in civil engineering and management [
31]. Construction is a project-oriented industry that benefits from both the technical and interpersonal skills that a project manager has to offer [
32]. Project managers must have the opportunity to receive education and attend training courses so that they can update their skills. Therefore, the technical skills and learning abilities of project managers have been identified as factors contributing to project success [
33]. The professional knowledge that a project manager needs to master includes primary civil engineering technology, project evaluation review technology (PERT), knowledge regarding engineering costs, and contract management, among others. Benjaoran proposed the use of a 4D CAD model to achieve comprehensive safety management in construction projects [
34]. The competency statement above is mainly concerned with the project internal environment. Understanding the project external environment also forms part of the inevitable work of a project manager during the construction process. With the rapid development of information technology and the emergence of affordable, high-performance computers, a great deal of information is obtained, and it is necessary for project managers to identify useful information rapidly and respond in a timely manner [
35]. The above skills are regarded as the basic literacy of project managers. Thus, the following hypothesis is suggested. Therefore:
Hypothesis 2 (H2). The basic literacy of a project manager has a positive effect on the success of GBC.
In addition to the coordination and management of project participants, the project manager must control the important project nodes, in order to deliver in accordance with the expected target. In PMBOK, target management is divided into three chapters, which are time, quality, and cost. Resource management (including construction equipment and materials) and financial management are key points in project management, and should be included in the project manager competencies [
36]. However, conflicts, and risks in the construction industry are important factors leading to high construction costs [
8,
37]. Thus, in order to prevent the increase in construction costs and delays of the time limit, the project manager should focus on avoiding conflict and risk. Health and safety management can also save lives and money [
38]. Therefore:
Hypothesis 3 (H3). The target management competency of a project manager has a positive effect on the success of GBC.
In addition to the above common competencies, project managers should also possess emotional intelligence, which may also affect the project manager performance. Boyatzis demonstrated that competencies are behavioral manifestations of emotional intelligence [
39]. Certain factors relating to the emotional intelligence of a project manager are analyzed in the following paragraphs.
Interpersonal skills: Traditionally, research in the project management field has tended to focus on the application of construction technology, but has neglected to pay attention to the management of people and interpersonal relationships. The social interaction of project relations in the development of construction projects is essentially emotional, and the ensuing emotion plays an important role in the project process [
40]. Employees from the same construction project have different educational backgrounds and cultural knowledge. In order to achieve a project goal within a short period, the project manager needs to establish strong relationships with the key members quickly. Effective interpersonal relationships have a positive impact on the leadership of project managers [
41]. The interpersonal relationship skills of project managers are mainly reflected in their ability to perceive employees’ feelings and thoughts, and being able to listen to other people’s suggestions for making appropriate decisions in a timely manner so that they can maintain strong relationships for a lengthy period.
Emotional control ability: Studies have shown that the most important factor affecting project progress is management skills, rather than construction technology issues [
42]. In recent research, the emotion of project managers has been emphasized as the core factor influencing the manner in which leaders manage daily work [
43]. The Mayer–Salovey–Caruso emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT) measures the managing emotions in two branches: emotional and social management [
44]. The author believes that emotional management can be divided into two aspects: emotional self-management and regulating employee emotions so that they have a positive attitude towards work. The ability of project managers to understand and control their own and employee emotions affects the quality of their relationships with internal and external stakeholders [
45], thereby affecting the management efficiency of the project manager.
Guanxi management ability: Understanding and adapting to local culture is also a necessity for project managers. The environment of China is a human society, in which “Guanxi” represents the basic connections among Chinese people, which are trained into their interactions every day, including their relationships with family, friends, and business partners [
46]. The social relationships of project managers are extensive and complicated, such as maintaining long-term cooperation with suppliers. Therefore:
Hypothesis 4 (H4). The emotional intelligence of a project manager has a positive effect on the success of GBC.
2.3. Index Revision and Establishment of Structural Equation Modeling
In addition to conventional construction procedures, green building projects must implement sustainable construction practices, which are typically listed in the green building evaluation system, such as LEED. By reviewing the relationships between the project manager competencies and key success criteria for green building, it was found that research in this field is very scarce. The success of a green building project is strong linked to the leadership of project managers. A case showed that a well-designed construction project failed due to improper management by the project manager. On 15 November 2011, a high-rise fire broke out in the Jing’an District of Shanghai, because of the confusion of construction site management and the appointment of unlicensed technicians by project managers. Zhao identified the leadership characteristics and styles of project managers in Singaporean green building projects, such as striving for work performance and productivity, exhibiting strong concern for work tasks, and directing subordinates with clear roles and goals [
59]. Tabassi noted that transformational leadership, managerial competency, and intellectual competency are all essential for sustainable building success [
3]. Hwang placed emphasis on the management of green buildings, including high cost premium, unequal distribution of benefits, lack of green product information, complex legislation, and lack of awareness [
60]. Owing to the lack of relevant research literature, the author invited five experts in GBC for an interview. The purpose of this interview was the correction and evaluation of the project manager competencies proposed above, in order to achieve scientific results in data analysis, and to improve the reliability and validity of the measurement scales. According to the expert discussions, the final index system was deleted based on the original and added systems. The experts provided a basic affirmation of the initial recognition index. They believed that the above abilities could summarize the capability requirements of the construction project manager. “Health and safety management” was removed, as all experts held the view that the project manager had done a good job for the health and safety management of workers in the traditional construction process, and the construction technology of the green building was complex but not highly dangerous. Three experts pointed out that, during the GBC process, the manager should pay attention to national policies and regulations. For project managers, another very important ability is to understand the relevant policies and regulations accurately and to have knowledge of the industry development trends. Brill suggested that project managers need to “know the politics and future” in a study on efficient project managers [
61]. The author made another investigation to verify the saturation of factor list attained from the previous expert interview. The survey was conducted among the other 10 experts in project management research areas. The background information of the 10 experts was displayed in
Table 3 After investigation, the 10 experts did not propose any additional factors. Therefore, the final project manager competency factors were reasonable. The final project manager competencies included 14 items, as indicated in
Table 3.
Moreover, the structural equation model (SEM) corresponding to the hypothesis was established, as illustrated in
Figure 1. In the constructed structural equation, four dimensions for the project manager competency and success factors of GBC were regarded as latent variables, with each factor considered as an observation variable.