Leadership under Construction: A Qualitative Exploration of Leadership Processes in Construction Companies in Sweden
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147, Issue 12
Abstract
Leadership has increasingly been advocated as a potent organizing practice, linked positively to several performance dimensions as well as successful organizational development and change. Despite these alleged promises, the specific characteristics of leadership processes as they unfold in a construction context have not been fully captured by construction researchers. This paper is predicated on an identified lack of methodological richness underlying leadership studies in construction. While a growing number of contributions have quantitatively tested the ideas and models of leadership scholars, few have qualitatively explored the experiences and interpretations of the actual people that practice leadership in their daily work in construction companies. Drawing on a rich qualitative interview study, this paper analyzes open-ended stories about leadership in the largest construction companies in Sweden. The findings show how leadership styles have been shaped to align with traditional work and organizing principles, but also how they, by the same token, pose a seemingly unresolved tension with change initiatives that seek to reorganize to improve organizational performance. Altogether, these findings indicate that there are grounds to question the transformative potential of leadership in construction companies, as practiced today. The paper concludes by outlining the practical implications of these findings, together with some analytical generalizations that can serve as pointers for a strengthened leadership agenda in construction research, one that is characterized by an increased methodological richness and accentuated focus on the context-specific aspects of leadership.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Alvesson, M., M. Blom, and S. Sveningsson. 2017. Reflexive leadership: Organising in an imperfect world. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Alvesson, M., and D. Kärreman. 2011. Qualitative research and theory development: Mystery as Method. London: SAGE.
Alvesson, M., and K. Sköldberg. 2017. Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research. London: SAGE.
Alvesson, M., and A. Spicer. 2012. “Critical leadership studies: The case for critical performativity.” Hum. Relat. 65 (3): 367–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726711430555.
Alvesson, M., and A. Spicer. 2014. “Critical perspectives on leadership.” In The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations, 40–56. New York: Oxford University Press.
Appelbaum, S. H., N. St-Pierre, and W. Glavas. 1998. “Strategic organizational change: The role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity.” Manage. Decis. 36 (5): 289–301. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749810220496.
Barker, R. A. 2001. “The nature of leadership.” Hum. Relat. 54 (4): 469–494. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726701544004.
Bass, B. M., and B. J. Avolio. 1993. “Transformational leadership and organizational culture.” Public Administration Q. 17 (1): 112–121.
Bass, B. M., and R. E. Riggio. 2006. Transformational leadership. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
Bolden, R., and J. Gosling. 2006. “Leadership competencies: Time to change the tune?” Leadership 2 (2): 147–163.
Bolden, R., B. Hawkins, J. Gosling, and S. Taylor. 2011. Exploring leadership: Individual, organizational and societal perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bresnen, M. J., A. E. Bryman, J. R. Ford, A. D. Beardsworth, and T. E. Keil. 1986. “Leader orientation of construction site managers.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 112 (3): 370–386. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1986)112:3(370).
Brodbeck, F. C., and S. Eisenbeiss. 2014. “Cross-cultural and global leadership.” In The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bryman, A. 2004. “Qualitative research on leadership: A critical but appreciative review.” Leadersh. Q. 15 (6): 729–769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.007.
Butler, C. J., and P. S. Chinowsky. 2006. “Emotional intelligence and leadership behavior in construction executives.” J. Manage. Eng. 22 (3): 119–125. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(2006)22:3(119).
Chan, A. T., and E. H. Chan. 2005. “Impact of perceived leadership styles on work outcomes: Case of building professionals.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 131 (4): 413–422. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2005)131:4(413).
Chan, P., and R. Cooper. 2010. Constructing futures: Industry leaders and futures thinking in construction. New York: Wiley.
Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Cladinin, D. J., and F. M. Connelly. 2000. Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Collinson, D., O. Smolović Jones, and K. Grint. 2018. “No more heroes: Critical perspectives on leadership romanticism.” Organ. Stud. 39 (11): 1625–1647.
Conger, J. A., and R. Kanungo. 1998. Charismatic leadership in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Crevani, L., M. Lindgren, and J. Packendorff. 2010.“ Leadership, not leaders: On the study of leadership as practices and interactions.” Scand. J. Manage. 26 (1): 77–86.
Cunliffe, A., and M. Eriksen. 2011. “Relational leadership.” Hum. Relat. 64 (11): 1425–1449.
Czarniawska, B. 2004. Narratives in social science research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Dainty, A. 2007. “A review and critique of construction management research methods.” In Proc., Construction Management and Economics 25thAnniversary Conf., edited by W. Hughes, 143. Reading, UK: Univ. of Reading.
Dainty, A. 2008. “Methodological pluralism in construction management research.” In Vol. 622 of Advanced research methods in the built environment, edited by A. Knight and L. Ruddock. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Day, D. V., 2014. “Introduction: Leadership and organizations.” In Oxford library of psychology. The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations, edited by D. V. Day, 3–12. New York: Oxford University Press.
Day, D. V., and R. G. Lord. 1988. “Executive leadership and organizational performance: Suggestions for a new theory and methodology.” J. Manage. 14 (3): 453–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920638801400308.
Diaz-Saenz, H. R. 2011. “Transformational leadership.” In The SAGE handbook of leadership, 299–310. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Dubois, A., and L. E. Gadde. 2002. “The construction industry as a loosely coupled system: Implications for productivity and innovation.” Constr. Manage. Econ. 20 (7): 621–631. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190210163543.
Dulaimi, M. F., and D. Langford. 1999. “Job behavior of construction project managers: Determinants and assessment.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 125 (4): 256–264. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1999)125:4(256).
Ellis, C., and A. Bochner. 2000. “Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject.” In The handbook of qualitative research, edited by N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, 733–768. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Fairhurst, G. 2007. Discursive leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Fellows, R. 2010. “New research paradigms in the built environment.” Constr. Innov. 10 (1): 5–13. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011017545.
Fellows, R., A. Liu, and C. M. Fong. 2003. “Leadership style and power relations in quantity surveying in Hong Kong.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 21 (8): 809–818. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000174521.
Flyvbjerg, B. 2006. “Five misunderstandings about case-study research.” Qual. Inquiry 12 (2): 219–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363.
Fraser, C. 2000. “The influence of personal characteristics on effectiveness of construction site managers.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 18 (1): 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370924.
Gill, P. B. 2001. “Narrative inquiry: Designing the processes, pathways and patterns of change.” Syst. Res. Behav. Sci. Offic. J. Int. Fed. Syst. Res. 18 (4): 335–344. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.428.
Gilley, A., H. S. McMillan, and J. W. Gilley. 2009. “Organizational change and characteristics of leadership effectiveness.” J. Leadersh. Organ. Stud. 16 (1): 38–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051809334191.
Giritli, H., and G. T. Oraz. 2004. “Leadership styles: Some evidence from the Turkish construction industry.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 22 (3): 253–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190310001630993.
Guest, G., A. Bunce, and L. Johnson. 2006. “How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability.” Field Methods 18 (1): 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05279903.
Kasapoğlu, E. 2014. “Leadership styles in architectural design offices in Turkey.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 140 (2): 04013047. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000799.
Kisfalvi, V. 2002. “The entrepreneur’s character, life issues, and strategy making—A field study.” J. Bus. Venturing 17 (5): 489–518. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-9026(01)00075-1.
Langford, D. A., R. Fellows, M. Hancock, and A. Gale. 1995. Human resource management in construction. London: Longman.
Liden, R. C., and J. Antonakis. 2009. “Considering context in psychological leadership research.” Hum. Relat. 62 (11): 1587–1605. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709346374.
Löwstedt, M., and C. Räisänen. 2012. “‘Playing back-spin balls’: Narrating organizational change in construction.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 30 (9): 795–806. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.693189.
Löwstedt, M., C. Räisänen, and R. Leiringer. 2018. “Doing strategy in project-based organizations: Actors and patterns of action.” Int. J. Project Manage. 36 (6): 889–898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.05.002.
Mäkilouko, M. 2004. “Coping with multicultural projects: The leadership styles of Finnish project managers.” Int. J. Project Manage. 22 (5): 387–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2003.08.004.
McCabe, S., J. Rooke, D. Seymour, and P. Brown. 1998. “Quality managers, authority and leadership.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 16 (4): 447–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461998372222.
Mhatre, K. H., and R. E. Riggio. 2014. “Charismatic and transformational leadership: Past, present, and future.” In The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations, 221–240. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nadler, D. A., and M. L. Tushman. 1994. “Beyond the charismatic leader: Leadership and organizational change.” Calif. Manage. Rev. 32 (2): 77–97.
Nam, C. H., and C. B. Tatum. 1997. “Leaders and champions for construction innovation.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 15 (3): 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372999.
Northouse, P. 2016. Leadership: Theory and practice. 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Odusami, K. T., R. R. O. Iyagba, and M. M. Omirin. 2003. “The relationship between project leadership, team composition and construction project performance in Nigeria.” Int. J. Project Manage. 21 (7): 519–527. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(02)00059-5.
Ozorovskaja, R., J. T. Voordijk, and C. P. Wilderom. 2007. “Leadership and cultures of Lithuanian and Dutch construction firms.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 133 (11): 900–911. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2007)133:11(900).
Parker, S. K., and C. H. Wu. 2014. “Leading for proactivity: How leaders cultivate staff who make things happen.” In The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations, 380–403. New York: Oxford University Press.
Patton, M. 2002. Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Sage, D., and C. Vitry. 2018. Introduction: Societies under construction, 115–149. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Seymour, D., and T. Abd Elhaleem. 1991. “‘Horses for courses’—Effective leadership in construction.” Int. J. Project Manage. 9 (4): 228–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(91)90031-P.
Skipper, C. O., and L. C. Bell. 2006. “Assessment with 360 evaluations of leadership behavior in construction project managers.” J. Manage. Eng. 22 (2): 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(2006)22:2(75).
Strauss, A. L., and J. M. Corbin. 1990. Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Sundgren, M., and A. Styhre. 2006. “Leadership as de-paradoxification: Leading new drug development work at three pharmaceutical companies.” Leadership 2 (1): 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715006060652.
Taylor, J. E., C. S. Dossick, and M. Garvin. 2010. “Meeting the burden of proof with case-study research.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 137 (4): 303–311. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000283.
Thomas, D. R. 2006. “A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data.” Am. J. Eval. 27 (2): 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214005283748.
Toor, S., and G. Ofori. 2007. “Leadership research in the construction industry: A review of empirical work and possible future directions.” In Proc., CME 2007 Conf.—Construction Management and Economics: ‘Past, Present and Future’, 993–1003. Reading, UK: Univ. of Reading.
Toor, S. ur R., and Ofori, G. 2008. “Leadership for future construction industry: Agenda for authentic leadership.” Int. J. Project Manage. 26 (6): 620–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.09.010.
Tyssen, A. K., A. Wald, and P. Spieth. 2014. “The challenge of transactional and transformational leadership in projects.” Int. J. Project Manage. 32 (3): 365–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.010.
Wang, G., I. S. Oh, S. H. Courtright, and A. E. Colbert. 2011. “Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research.” Group Organ. Manage. 36 (2): 223–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111401017.
Wong, J., P. N. Wong, and L. Heng. 2007. “An investigation of leadership styles and relationship cultures of Chinese and expatriate managers in multinational construction companies in Hong Kong.” Construct. Manage. Econ. 25 (1): 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600632573.
Yin, R. K. 2013. “Validity and generalization in future case study evaluations.” Evaluation 19 (3): 321–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356389013497081.
Yukl, G. 2008. Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147 • Issue 12 • December 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 16, 2021
Accepted: Aug 30, 2021
Published online: Oct 12, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Mar 12, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
- Vijayeta Malla, Manideep Tummalapudi, Venkata Santosh Kumar Delhi, Perceptions of Built-Environment Professionals on Using ISO 19650 Standards for Information Management, Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction, 10.1061/JLADAH.LADR-1076, 16, 1, (2024).
- Maryam Hussain Abal-Seqan, Shaligram Pokharel, Khalid Kamal Naji, Key Success Factors and Their Impact on the Performance of Construction Projects: Case in Qatar, Sustainability, 10.3390/su15043700, 15, 4, (3700), (2023).
- Mazen M. Omer, N. M. Adeeq Mohd-Ezazee, Yong Siang Lee, Mohammad Sadra Rajabi, Rahimi A. Rahman, Constructive and Destructive Leadership Behaviors, Skills, Styles and Traits in BIM-Based Construction Projects, Buildings, 10.3390/buildings12122068, 12, 12, (2068), (2022).