Badger, W; Sullivan, K; Wiezel, A and Bopp, P H (2009) Profiling the leadership of project managers. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 5(2), pp. 121-146. ISSN 1557-8771
Abstract
Leadership is a concept rooted in human relationships, personal experience, and introspection. Teaching leadership, therefore, is best done by placing students in simulated situations where each individual can recognize within a short time the systemic consequences of personal behaviors and actions affecting others. A 52-action-card game was developed for this purpose. The game reveals a "player's" current management or leadership preferences and also elicits questioning and team discussion of the consequences of alternative actions. The cards provide a choice of actions that are plausible in responding to a deeply troubled construction project. Unbeknown to the players, each suite of action cards represents a different style. The game consists of selecting and recording 10 action cards, which, first in the opinion of the individual and then by consensus after vigorous team discussion and negotiation, will improve the troubled construction project. The individually selected cards are plotted on a four quadrant spider graph, profiling the students' leadership and management preferences, both at the beginning and at the end of the course or seminar. By selecting again 10 preferred action cards at the conclusion of a session, any shift in preferences can be assessed.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; educational games; leadership; project management |
| Index terms: | project manager, educational games, placing, project management, negotiation, construction project, preference |
| Subjects: | conflict resolution, concrete and cementitious materials, educational technology, project management theory and practice, profession, decision-making and reasoning, production management |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Construction Materials, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Project Management, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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