Impact of construction leaders' emotional quotient on project safety and quality

A construction leader's emotional quotient (EQ) can have a significant impact on both personal success and project safety and quality performance. It concerns their level of emotional awareness, understanding, and interpersonal and personal control. Studies on EQ have primarily focused on individual outcomes, such as stress management, skilled leadership, effective communication, and job satisfaction. While they are certainly important, it is also critical to look into how the EQ dimensions (i.e., maturity, competency, and sensitivity) affect the quality and safety performance of construction projects. It is also vital to investigate any potential connections between the skill of construction leaders in managing teams and the real-world experience that has shaped their EQ. However, prior research has not placed much emphasis on these elements. This study created hypotheses to address these aspects. Survey data collected from 256 construction leaders was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that the EQ, competency, and sensitivity of construction leaders have a favorable and significant impact on project safety performance. Construction leaders' emotional sensitivity has a significant positive influence on the quality performance, unlike their emotional maturity and competency. Moreover, it is revealed that the leaders' years of experience have a substantial impact on their emotional sensitivity and competency, unlike maturity. Furthermore, the team size that the leaders manage does not impact their EQ dimensions. The aforementioned results reveal how leaders' EQ traits influence project safety and quality performance, adding value to the existing knowledge. This insight will also contribute to the selection and development of leaders, with EQ taking center stage alongside more conventional abilities.