Lantz, M; Löwstedt, M and Netz, J (2024) Leadership and digital transformation in the construction industry: A qualitative exploration of leadership practices. In: Thomson, C (ed.) Proceedings of 40th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2024, London South Bank University, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry’s digital transformation renders consequences that are hard to predict and how new need for leadership evolve. Here, the construction management literature prescribes functionalistic views, while how managers cope with the technology-intense context in their leadership is missing. Exploring this problem, the paper focus managers everyday leadership in the practiced digitalisation of various construction operations. We conduct interviews with nine managers respectively during three years in the construction industry in Sweden, Preliminary findings from the initial two rounds of interviews (n=14) indicate that the Swedish culture gives rise to ineffective practices with 'nagging', 'ethical manipulation' and 'seeking consensus' in managers' attempts to lead digitalisation. This begins to reveal insights regarding contextual influence on everyday leadership practices associated with digital transformation in the construction industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | digital transformation; leadership; practice; context |
| Index terms: | exploration, construction industry, digitalization, interview, manager, transformation, construction operation, Sweden |
| Subjects: | Geography, industry analysis, practitioner, data collection methods, business, construction operations, digital technology, environmental resource management |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, Site Management, Business Strategy, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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