Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership behaviours of construction project managers

Author(s):  
Emily M. Potter ◽  
Temitope Egbelakin ◽  
Robyn Phipps ◽  
Behrooz Balaei

Purpose Existing research has highlighted the need for influential leaders to respond to the evolving social, economic and environmental constraints on the construction industry. Studies on leadership in other sectors have shown that influential leaders tend to demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence. Little or no research examining relationships between leadership style and emotional intelligence has been conducted specific to construction project managers. This study aims to identify the prevalent leadership style adopted by construction project managers and investigate potential correlations between leadership style and emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire including a mix of open and closed questions was adopted to address the research objectives. The group studied comprised project managers currently working in the construction industry in New Zealand and the UK. Findings The research found that transformational leadership style is prevalent among project managers examined in this study. Significant positive relationships were found between project managers’ emotional intelligence and their likelihood of adopting a transformational leadership style. Originality/value The research results provide the construction industry with a benchmark against which individuals with high emotional intelligence, and so most suited to the challenges of the project management role, can be identified and trained. Recommendations including suitable methods for identifying, recruiting and training project managers, as well as secondment and mentoring options, were suggested for improving leadership capabilities in the construction industry.

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashid Maqbool ◽  
Ye Sudong ◽  
Nasir Manzoor ◽  
Yahya Rashid

Project stakeholders always strive for a successful project, hence there is growing concern about the factors that influence project success. Although the success of a project is influenced by various factors, project managers play a very important role. This study aims to examine the relationship and impact of construction project managers’ emotional intelligence (EI), managerial competencies, and transformational leadership style on project success. A total of 107 Pakistani construction firms were studied with a view to measuring the effects of these variables on the overall performance of construction projects. The results show that project managers with high emotional intelligence who bear the desired competencies and exhibit transformational leadership behavior are effective leaders and ensure higher success in projects than their counterparts. The findings will assist project sponsors in selecting the appropriate project managers for their projects.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
De-Graft Owusu-Manu ◽  
Caleb Debrah ◽  
Lydia Amissah ◽  
David J. Edwards ◽  
Nicholas Chileshe

PurposeLeadership encapsulates a process of influencing others to understand what needs to be done and how it can be done. The related area of mindset behaviour which moderates leadership styles adopted in various industries has hitherto received scant academic attention in a construction context. This paper thus explores the linkages between project manager's mindset behaviour and project leadership style in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachLiterature reviewed provides the basis for a questionnaire data collection instrument developed to gather primary data from construction professionals in the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI). A quantitative research strategy was then adopted using the Relative Importance Index (RII) to determine the level of significance of the leadership and mindset archetypes. A Pearson's correlation test was run to ascertain whether the mindset behaviour of project managers has a significant impact upon the type of leadership style.FindingsThe study's results indicate that democratic, transformational and situational leadership styles were prevalent leadership styles in the GCI. The analysis also revealed that project managers favoured the “growth mindset”. Furthermore this style had a moderate positive relationship with democratic and transformational leadership styles. Conversely, a fixed mindset had a low positive relationship with autocratic and situational leadership styles but a low negative relationship with transformational leadership style.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides sufficient data for project managers to identify the type of mindset to nurture (the growth mindset is recommended) and the effective leadership style to be employed. This study engenders wider discussion on mindset behaviour and project leadership style in developing countries. Moreover, the findings present policymakers and practitioners with the leadership styles to promote and develop (democratic, transformational and situational) and mindset behaviour (growth mindset) to ensure project success in Ghana and other developing countries.Originality/valueThis research represents the first comprehensive study appraising the linkages between project managers’ mindset behaviour and project leadership style in the construction industry. Empirical data presented bridge the identified knowledge gap that exists on the lack of theoretical understanding of the influence that project managers' mindset has on leadership styles in the GCI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3480
Author(s):  
Abdulla Abdulaziz Al-Subaie ◽  
Mohd. Nishat Faisal ◽  
Belaid Aouni ◽  
Faisal Talib

Project managers’ leadership has a direct and an indirect effect on project success. Extant literature has established that transformational leadership style positively affects project success in a major way. The main aim of this research is to understand the variables that positively affects transformational leadership development and their interrelationships in megaprojects. The Total Interpretive Structural Model (TISM) methodology is adopted to propose a framework, and Impact Matrix Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification (MICMAC) approach is used to examine the strategic nature of the enablers. The research shows that there exists a group of enablers having a high driving power and low dependence, requiring maximum attention and of strategic importance, while another group consists of those variables that have high dependence and are resultant actions. Furthermore, the model explains the relationships among each pair of variables. Organisations dealing in megaprojects would be the major beneficiaries of this study. Policy makers in these organisations would explicitly understand the variables and their interrelationships that needs attention for transformational leadership development. This would help them to prioritize their efforts and implement suitable strategies to focus on the most important variables for developing transformational leaders ultimately leading to project success.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 894-910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Mittal ◽  
Rajib Lochan Dhar

Purpose – Among the different styles of leadership, transformational leadership has gained most attention from organisational researchers and academics. Although transformational leadership and its work-associated outcomes have been examined in previous literature, only a small number of studies highlighted the role of transformational leadership style in fostering employee creativity, mediated through their creative self-efficacy (CSE) in the context of Indian organisations. The purpose of this paper is to observe the effect of transformational leadership on employee creativity in small and medium sized IT companies, where CSE is proposed as a mediator and knowledge sharing as a moderator through which a transformational leader tends to influence the creativity of the employees. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from 348 manager-employee dyads of small and medium size IT companies operating in India. They replied to questions about their leader’s transformational leadership style, employee CSE, knowledge sharing and creativity. Findings – Findings of the present study, derived from a hierarchical regression analysis, using the data of 348 manager-employee dyads from Indian IT SMEs professionals, revealed that CSE mediates the relation between transformational leadership and employee creativity. In addition, knowledge sharing acts as a moderator for CSE and employee creativity. Research limitations/implications – A sample size is one probable limitation of the study. Another limitation of the study is that factors used for the survey were self-reported by the respondents. Self-reporting may not always produce reliable and accurate response. Practical implications – Based on the results, this study presents strong theoretical and managerial implications that can be used by IT organisations to evaluate the consequence of transformational leadership on employee creativity. Through transformational leadership style, leader can develop CSE and employee creativity to do things in a better way and develop knowledge sharing in employees for high performance. Therefore, the IT industry need to understand that creativity is one of the approaches to attaining and sustaining competitive advantage. In addition, it is important for them to find out more about the relation between transformational leadership, CSE and employee creativity. Originality/value – The study adds to the existing literature by illuminating the process through which transformational leadership has a significant effect on fostering CSE and employee creativity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 1083-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashita Goswami ◽  
Prakash Nair ◽  
Terry Beehr ◽  
Michael Grossenbacher

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine affective events theory (AET) by testing the mediating effect of employees’ positive affect at work in the relationships of leaders’ use of positive humor with employees’ work engagement, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs); and the moderating effect of transformational leadership style on the relationship between leaders’ use of positive humor and subordinate’s positive affect at work. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from 235 full-time employees working for a large information technology and business consulting corporation. Moderated mediation (Hayes, 2013) was performed to test the proposed model. Findings Leaders’ positive humor was related to creation of subordinates’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Positive emotions at work did not mediate between leaders’ humor and performance or OCBs. In addition, leaders’ use of transformational leadership style made the relationship between leaders’ positive humor and employees’ positive emotions at work stronger. Research limitations/implications This study provides evidence of the positive relationship of leaders’ positive humor with employees’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Such knowledge may help to inform the training workshops in humor employed by practitioners and potentially create a more enjoyable and fun workplace, which can lead to greater employee engagement. Originality/value AET helps explain effects of leader humor, but the effects of are complex. Leader’s use of even positive humor is most likely to have favorable effects mainly depending on their leadership style (transformational) and if their humor successfully leads to positive emotions among employees.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 761-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamil George Naoum ◽  
Carlos Herrero ◽  
Charles Egbu ◽  
Daniel Fong

Purpose It is axiomatic that construction is a fast-paced and competitive industry, which goes hand in hand with many construction professionals suffering from stress including construction project managers (C-PMs). The role of C-PMs is crucial to achieving project success as they are responsible for planning the project, organising human resources, controlling operations and the budget, and forecasting probable difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causal relationships between stressors, stresses, stress-coping behaviours and their impact on the performance of C-PMs. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the relationships between stress and performance among C-PMs, a questionnaire was designed based on the extensive literature, and was sent to 150 C-PMs who had amassed at least five years’ direct working experience in the construction industry. A total of 44 completed questionnaires were returned. Correlation analysis and structural equation modelling were employed to understand the integrated relationships between these factors. Based on the data collected and analysis of the results, an integrated structural equation model of the stresses and performances of C-PMs was developed using AMOS version 22.0. Findings The results of structural equation modelling reveal the following: burnout is the type of stress that has the highest impact on the performance of C-PMs, being detrimental to their interpersonal performance (IPP) and positive for their organisational performance (OP), whereas physiological stress worsens the task performance of C-PMs and objective stress improves their IPP. The most active stressor towards the performance of C-PMs is “workgroup cooperation”, which has an impact on the IPP in a positive way but is detrimental to the OP. Career-developing environment, poor organisational structure and role conflict affect both stress and performance together. Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive investigation into the impact of various types of stress on the performances of C-PMs. The result constitutes a significant step towards the stress management of C-PMs in the dynamic and stressful construction industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Somnoma Edouard Kabore ◽  
Seydou Sane ◽  
Pascaline Abo

PurposeThe aim of this study is to evaluate to what extent the project team size influence the relation between transformational leadership and success of international development projects (IDPs). The paper draws on leader-member-exchange (LMX) theory and contextualizes transformational leadership style to temporary project environment particularly that of an official development assistance project in an African context.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on the processing of a primary database collected by questionnaire from 111 coordinators of IDPs in Benin. The structural equation method based on the PLS approach was used to test our hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the preliminary results reveal that, in the context of IDP, projects managers are much more sensitive to the “management” and “visibility” dimensions than to the “impact” dimension of project success. Then, following the hypothesis test, the results show that transformational leadership has a direct positive influence on the success of IDP. Project team size does not play a moderating role in the relationship between transformational leadership and project success. Also, considering the effect of the specific dimensions of transformational leadership on IDP success, only the “idealized influence” dimension influences directly and positively on the latter.Originality/valueResearch calls for examining the role of team size vis-à-vis transformational leadership style and project success and calls in general for studying project manager's leadership styles. This study contributes to literature by answering such calls. In addition, the originality of this study lies in the evaluation of the influence of the specific dimensions because the exclusive use of leadership forms provides an imperfect and oversimplified picture of reality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 5202
Author(s):  
Ervina Wilyanita ◽  
I Gusti Salit Ketut Netra

A poor emotional intelligence and lack of transformational leadership application by the leader will affect company’s teamwork effectivity. The weak of teamwork effectivity will affect company’s success that will obstruct company improvement. This research aims to determine the role of transformational leadership style  in mediating emotional intelligence on teamwork effectivity. This reseachwas conducted at PT. Surticon Buana Perkasa Denpasar, which has 52 employees. Data collection was obtained from questionnairs and analyzed by classical assumption test, pathway analysis, Sobel test, and VAF test. The results showed that emotional intelligence has positive and significant effect on transformational leadership style and teamwork effectivity,  transformational leadership style has positive and significant effect on teamwork effectivity, and emotional intelligence has positive and significant effect on teamwork effectivity by transformational leadership style mediated. Keywords: transformational leadership, emotional intelligence, teamwork effectivity  


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 585-599
Author(s):  
Modesta Morkevičiūtė ◽  
Auksė Endriulaitienė

Purpose This paper aims to deal with a study aimed at clarifying the relationship between the dimensions of the perceived transformational leadership style and work motivation in a sample of female employees. Design/methodology/approach A total of 168 Lithuanian employees participated in the empirical study. Work motivation was assessed using the work extrinsic and intrinsic motivation scale (Tremblay et al., 2009). The perceived transformational leadership style was assessed with the help of the transformational leadership inventory (Podsakoff et al., 1990). Findings The results revealed that both intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation of female employees was enhanced when the leader was perceived as a person articulating the vision of the future, providing an appropriate role model, fostering the acceptance of group goals and applying intellectual stimulation. High-performance expectations of the transformational leader lead to an increased level of women’s extrinsic motivation. Originality/value This study contributes to the limited empirical research into the role of discrete dimensions of transformational leadership in determining both intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation of female employees.


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