How personality traits influence management styles of construction project managers

Purpose: This research investigates the dominant personality traits of construction project managers (PMs) and how their personality influences their management styles. Design/methodology/approach: An industry-wide survey with 70 PMs was conducted in Singapore. The survey data were subjected to inferential statistical tests. In-depth interviews were conducted with four subject matter experts. Findings: Majority of the sample PMs are male with age, education level and experience well spread. The dominant personality traits of PMs are found to be: high in Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness and low in Neuroticism. PMs adopt “team leadership” style in which they place high emphasis on both the work that they need to complete and the people they lead. Their Agreeableness and Conscientiousness may improve over time. Research limitations/implications: The correlations and regressions cannot prove causality. Practical implications: It is discovered that PMs who have high conscientiousness and high openness personalities are more likely to be leaders who are concerned for both the people that they lead and production outcomes. The implication is that employers may wish to conduct personality tests at the time of hiring to ensure good job match. Originality/value: This study is novel because it integrated two areas of knowledge – personality traits and management style. The regression analysis discovered that Openness and Conscientiousness traits may be used to predict PMs' management styles. This suggests that if personality tests are administered at hiring stage, the outcomes may be used to match potential hires to the jobs that they are being considered for.