Newton, S (2008) Changing the framework for leadership in the construction industry. In: Dainty, A (ed.) Proceedings of 24th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2008, Cardiff, UK.
Abstract
When you think about effective leadership you typically conceive of leadership in terms of inspiration and innovation; inspirational, because leadership is about influencing people to do things you want them to do, willingly and well; innovative, because leadership is about change and risk-taking. There seems little contention in such a conception of effective leadership. However, there is growing frustration in the management literature with such a conception of leadership, expressed in personal attribute and stylistic terms. This paper examines the root of that frustration and introduces an alternative framework conceived around leadership as an activity: adaptive leadership. Whilst adaptive leadership was originally developed as a response to the tough social and environmental problems we increasingly face, the nature of the construction industry is such that similar features now apply. A case is developed for a change, in the framework for leadership in the construction industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | adaptive leadership; authority; construction management; leadership |
| Index terms: | risk taking, face, construction industry |
| Subjects: | psychology, decision-making and reasoning, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 CT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here