Construction Develops Leaders
How Construction Develops Its Leaders?
Introduction
Leadership too many, is the interaction between a leader and there subordinates. In history leadership was about autocratic power were many will follow the king or emperor. But in the 21st century the skills that need to be developed in order to lead in the technology age are far more complex. This is due the fact of the diversity in the work place and the fact that different jobs require different skills. In this essay, there will be a discussion based on the skills that are required by a construction manager in the built environment. How do construction managers develop in to fine leaders and what theories or trends that every manager follows to be successful. And most of all what are the characteristics of a team leader? This essay will have views for and against for the development of the individual skills that are used in the construction management. (Revans 1980)
The nature of a leader extinguishes the divine ability of everything the human race depends upon and that is leadership. Rick Foster suggests future leadership development activities and programs must evolve from context by raising the question for leadership needed. According to Foster there are many approaches to the development of leaders simply because of the diverse personalities which provide different challenges that managers face at work everyday. And because of this each approach must be carefully considered so it has an intended impact. (Foster 2000)
Foster also states leadership development activities should be established within the cultural, historical and social context and needs of the society it serves. Hence, that leadership can be taught to a young age. Foster uses the example of America and how leadership skills among youth are encouraged by the government by a numerous of different ways such as extra curricular programs and mentoring and this can be done at an early age such as boy/girl scouts. Foster raises a point within the article in which he outlines the basis for the development of leaders should only be taught to primary audiences such as college age adults rather than youth in poor communities because he states the youths from poorer communities as being less profitable to the knowledge of effective leadership. (Foster 2000)
Foster constitutes leadership development as that it should reflect a clear perspective and philosophy of leadership in which a clear set of expected outcomes and means of evaluation and a vision for sustaining development efforts over time. Foster has relevance in his views on leadership relevant to the construction industry approach to management on group collaboration in which on a construction project, the contractors and the design collaborate together when the design and build model is used.
(Foster 2000)
According to David Day's Article, entitled Leadership development, Leadership has been based on the individual skill level. An example of this is found in transformational leadership theory, which proposes that transformational leaders engage in behaviours related to the dimensions of Charisma, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualised Consideration (Bass, 1985). This agrees with Foster's principle of mentoring basically anyone in leadership development. Day's argument on leadership development seems to show that a certain skill is required from a worker in which he describes above for them to develop in to strong leaders. This argument is based from mental behaviour perspective. (Day 2001). For a construction manager this would require working with different professionals in the industry and the construction manager will have to learn how to collaborate with there team in order for the work to be completed.
The emphasis on leadership development should be based on building and using your own personal knowledge. Gardner (1993) defines interpersonal intelligence in terms of the ability to understand people. In other words a basic concern in building trust, respect, and ultimately commitments key components of interpersonal competence include social awareness and social skills as described by (McCauley, 2000). The emphasis is on the social nature of this competence, and the idea that effective development best occurs in an interpersonal context. The notion of leadership development offered in the present review focuses on the interaction between an individual and the social and organisational environment (Fiedler, 1996). This again refers to Day's argument on development on individual leadership.
Jacob argues ‘it is a more complex endeavour than one concerned solely with individual leadership development.' Although there is still a need to develop a sound foundation of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, it is proposed that the most value resides in combining what is considered the traditional, individualistic approach to leader development with a more shared and relational approach. According to Jacobs this is mentoring and coaching by a experienced manager working with a trainee manager. (Jacobs 1987)
The distinction of leader development can be interpreted as a form of individual-based differentiation in terms of helping individuals enhance a unique self-understanding and construct independent identities (Hall & Seibert, 1992). The way a site manager manages there site can be a clear resemblance of there personality. According to MaCauley (1998) ‘Leadership development can be thought of as an integration strategy by helping people understand how to relate to others, coordinate their efforts, build commitments, and develop extended social networks by applying self-understanding to social and organisational imperatives'.
An overall approach to leadership development as a type of organizational development strategy requires a purposeful transformation toward higher levels of both leadership integration and differentiation. This is an example of a move toward what has been termed “organised complexity” (Gharajedaghi, 1999).
The profound changes shaping the competitive construction environment are also affecting how organizations prepare people for present and future challenges. One emphasis has been on investing more intensely in leader and leadership development across all organisation levels, and to develop leadership capacity in all employees and across all organisational systems. Appendix A gives a better insight into the diversity of leadership skills and why any leader cannot posses all the subjective skills of a leader. (Hall & Seibert, 1992)
According to Conger one of the biggest challenges facing organisations is reversing a tendency that allows leadership development to become a tedious which results from embedding development in the ongoing work of an organisation without sufficient notice to intentionality, accountability, and evaluation. This slows the leadership development rate with in any company which can sometimes make companies employ emergency staff who may not have the competent managerial skills required for the job. This can never be the case for the construction contractors because the client can tender the job to a rival firm or in future this prospective client may not consider the company at all for future tenders all because of the mistake of the project/construction manager. (Conger 1993)
Mumford (2000) suggests observations about the nature of a leader's attributes efforts are of some interest in their own right. With respect to understanding effective leadership in organizational settings, however, the nature of the problems at hand and their associated performance demands have another noteworthy set of implications. (Mumford 2000)
Appendix B however presents an overview of the key kinds of capabilities, knowledge and skills brought to bear in leaders' problem-solving efforts. This model posits that leaders begin to address complex organisational issues by defining the problem and formulating a solution framework or set of ideas that might be used to understand the problem and develop initial solution strategies. In this phase, leaders, sometimes with the help of others, focus primarily on the problem, its significance, origins, and potential solutions. Although the focus at this point is on the problem, it is important to recognize that experience, knowledge of the job, and the nature of the organizational environment and the leader's understanding of it shape the way leaders represent the problem, the kinds of information they look for, and the type of concepts being applied (Mumford, Whetzel, & Reiter-Palmon, 1997). This sort of way cannot be taught but only developed through experience.
Intelligence is perhaps the individual characteristic that has most often and consistently been associated with leadership. Stogdill (1974) reported 23 studies that found leaders to be brighter than followers; only five studies showed no difference. In a second review, covering research between 1948 and 1970, 25 studies indicated a positive correlation between intelligence and leadership (Brass, 1999).
Intelligence and other abilities are not the only differential characteristics that might influence the acquisition of requisite leadership skills. A construction managers abilty to adapt to different working environment or unexpected circumstances that may arise and he is needed to solve these efficiently and effectively (Bass 1990). Skill development also requires a willingness to enter situations where these skills can be exercised, as well as a willingness to exercise these skills in solving significant organisational problems. (Fleishman & Friedman 1990)
As a result, one might expect that certain motivational and personality characteristics also influence both leader performance and the development of requisite capabilities. With regard to motivation, three characteristics seem essential to effective leadership. First, leaders must be willing to tackle difficult, challenging organisational problems using these problems as a vehicle for growth (Howard & Bray, 1988).
Accordingly, achievement and mastery motives, or the motivation to extend one's performance capabilities (Dweck 1986) can be expected to be related to both skills acquisition and subsequent performance. Second, leaders must be willing to exercise influence. Dominance, as a result, can be expected to influence performance, attracting individuals to situations where those skills can be exercised, motivating effort in those situations. In fact, House, Woycke, and Foder (1988) and Lord, DeVader, and Alliger (1986) have shown that measures of dominance or power motives are consistently related to leadership. But how is modern leadership measured in the 21st century
The following essay describes the development model of effective organisational leadership. More specifically, they address the following four key issues. First, they examine the possibility of developing reliable and valid measures of requisite knowledge and skills appropriate to the organization at hand. (Mumford 2000)
Second, they examine whether these measures are capable of predicting leader performance, accounting for variance in leader performance beyond that attributed to measures of abilities, motives, and personality characteristics. Third, in keeping with the notion that skills develop, and that higher levels of these skills are required as leaders move into positions of greater responsibility, propositions about leaders' knowledge and skills development over time and experiences linked to this development are identified and tested. (Mumford 2000)
And finally abilities, motives, and personality characteristics associated with different patterns of leader growth and change are examined. (Mumford 2000). The question that based that was asked at the start of the essay was how are managers developed and what attributes make a manager effective to the organisation they work for. The answer to this is that managers are cannot be taught to become effective leaders but good leaders rise to the occasion when they are needed or when their team needs them.
References
Brass, D. J., & Krackhardt, D. (1999). The social capital of twenty-first century leaders. In J. G. Hunt, G. E. Dodge, & L. Wong (Eds.), Out-of-the-box leadership: Transforming the twenty-first-century army and other top-performing organizations (pp. 179-194). Stamford, CT: JAI.
Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass&Stogdill's handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial application (3rd ed.). New York: Free Press.
Conger, J. A. (1993). The brave new world of leadership training. Organizational Dynamics, 21(3), 46-58.
David V. Day, LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: A REVIEW IN CONTEXT, Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 581-613. Copyright 2001. Elsevier Science Inc.
Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040-1048.
Doris B. Collins, Elwood F. Holton III, (2004) The Effectiveness of Managerial Leadership Development Programs: A Meta-Analysis of Studies from 1982 to 2001. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 15, no. 2, Summer 2004. Wiley Periodicals Inc.
Fleishman, E. A., & Friedman, L. (1990). Cognitive competencies related to management performance requirements in R&D organizations (CBCS Final Report 90-2). Fairfax, VA: George Mason University.
Fiedler, F. E. (1996). Research on leadership selection and training: One view of the future. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 241-250.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books.
Hall, D. Gharajedaghi, J. (1999). Systems thinking: Managing chaos and complexity. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.
House, R. J., Woycke, J., & Foder, E. M. (1988). Charismatic and non-charismatic leaders: Differences in behavior and effectiveness. In J. A. Conger and R. N. Kanungo (Eds.), Charismatic leadership (pp. 98-121). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
House, R. J., & Howell, J. M. (1992). Personality and charismatic leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 3, 81-108.
Howard, A.,&Bray, D. W. (1988). Managerial lives in transition: Advancing age and changing times. New York: Guilford.
Jacobs, T. O., & Jaques, E. (1987). Leadership in complex systems. In J. Zeidner (Ed.), Human productivity enhancment (vol. 2; pp. 7-65). New York: Praeger.
Lord, R. G., Devader, C. L., & Alliger, G. M. (1986). A meta-analysis of the relationship between personality traits and leadership perceptions: An application of validity generalization procedures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 402-410.
McCauley, C. D., & Brutus, S. (1998). Management development through job experiences: An annotated bibliography. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Mumford, J. Zaccaro, D. Harding, T. Owen. (2000). LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR A CHANGING WORLD: SOLVING COMPLEX SOCIAL PROBLEMS. Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), 11-35. Elsevier Science Inc
Mumford, M. D., Whetzel, D., & Reiter-Palmon, R. (1997). Thinking creatively at work: Organizational influences on creative problem solving. Journal of Creative Behavior, 31(1), 7-17.
O'Connor, J., Mumford, M. D., Clifton, T. C., Gessner, T. E., & Connelly, M. S., (1995). Charismatic leaders and destructiveness: A historiometric study. Leadership Quarterly, 6(4), 529-555.
Rick Foster, Leadership in the 21st century: Working to build a civil society, National Civic Review, vol. 89, no 1, spring 2000. Copyright Jossey-Bass, a Wiley company
Revans, R. W. (1980), Action learning. London: Blond & Briggs.
Stogdill, R. M. (1974). Handbook of Leadership (1st ed.). New York: Free Press.
T. Seibert,(1992). Strategic management development: Linking organizational strategy, succession planning, and managerial learning. In D. H. Montross & C. J. Shinkman (Eds.), Career development: Theory and practice (pp. 255-275). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Bibliography
Human Resource Management, Derek Torrington, Laura Hall, Stephen Taylor 6th edition, (2005) - Prentice Hall.
Modern Construction Management, 4th edition (1995) - Harris & McCaffer - BSP Professional.
Management, 4th edition (1994) - Robbins - Prentice Hall.
Interpreting Company Reports & Accounts, 6th edition (1997) ,Holmes & Sugden -Woodhead Falkner business units.
Construction Site Studies Production, Administration and Personnel, 2nd edition (1988) Foster.
Human Resource Management in Construction Projects: Strategic and Operational Approaches (2003) - Loosemore, Dainty & Lingard - Spon Press.
Construction Management and Methods, 6th Edition (2004), S. W. Nunnally. Prentice Hall Pearson.
Project Management; A Managerial Approach, 5th Edition (2004) J. R. Meredith and S. J. Mantel. John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Advanced Project Management; A Structured Approached, 4th Edition (2004) F, Harrison and D, Lock. Gower Press.
Project Management in Construction. 2nd Edition (1989) A, Walker. Blackwell Science.
Project Management; Best Practices, (2001) R. Murch, Prentice Hall
The Essentials of Project Management, 2nd Edition (2001) D. Lock. Gower Press.
The Essence of Managing Groups and Teams, (1996) H, Williams. Prentice Hall.
Effective Decision Making (1985) J, Adair, Gower Press.
We provide a professional essay writing service that thousands of our customers use as an effective way of improving their grades, improving their research and saving them lots of time.
