The impact of leadership effectiveness and team processes on team performance in construction

The ability of construction professionals to work effectively as part of interdisciplinary teams is vital as the delivery of projects moves away from the traditional design-bid-build approach. This study of 27 construction professionals participating in a leadership training institute used a competitive Request for Qualifications exercise to examine whether self-assessed leadership characteristics and satisfaction with team processes were predictive of team performance as assessed by a panel of industry experts. The individual participants' leadership characteristics and satisfaction with team processes were measured using standardized, validated assessment instruments. The results of the study show that team members' satisfaction with processes such as communications, trust, problem-solving, common goals, and effective utilization of team resources were important to team effectiveness, while leadership characteristics of the individual team members were not. These findings indicate that assembling project teams composed of people who have demonstrated the ability to work well with others may be more effective than assembling a group of individuals who all have strong leadership skills. The study has implications for construction professionals participating in interdisciplinary teams because it shows that the development of effective team processes and team member satisfaction with those processes are important for team performance.