Rethinking leadership to construction partnering projects

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of partnering in
construction. Central to any successful partnering arrangement is the change in cultural and behavioural characteristics towards mutual trust and understanding. Leadership is originally the source of the beliefs and values which forms shared assumptions of organisational culture. This paper builds on the leadership literature which has so ably demonstrated the influence of powerful leaders. As Bueno and Bowditch states “the reality may be that managing will remain much more of an art than a science”. However true this statement may be, there is a number of things that management can do to further cultural integration and the success of construction partnering projects. This paper initially reviews the theory behind partnering, culture and leadership. It stages arguments and discussions over the importance of behavioural aspects of leadership and explores applicability of leadership styles to construction partnering projects. Further, this establishes the requirement of project leader to exhibit different leadership styles and modes of motivation to demonstrate a range of behaviours together with the combination of transformational and transactional, firelighter leadership style.