Linking Institutional Pressures and Environmental Management Practices in Mega Construction Project: The Mediating Role of Project Managers’ Organizational Citizenship Behaviors for the Environment

This paper extends previous literature of mega construction projects (MCPs) by empirically exploring the relationships between institutional pressures and MCPs’ environmental management practices (EMPs) with considering the mediating effect of project managers’ organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment (OCBEs; a form of voluntary pro-environmental behaviors). A questionnaire survey was employed to collect data from 128 MCPs’ project managers in China. The results obtained from partial least squares analysis show that both mimetic and normative pressures have significant influences on EMPs. Conversely, there is no significant relationship between coercive pressure and EMPs. In addition, the results further indicate that project managers’ OCBEs play a critical but varied mediating role in the relationships between three types of institutional pressures and EMPs. This paper reinforces the need to regard project managers’ OCBEs as exemplary behaviors that demonstrate their personal and genuine commitment to the environment. The findings of this paper also provide new insights into the use of institutional forces to facilitate the improvement of EMPs in MCPs.