Leadership skills and competencies for cross-cultural construction projects

Shamas-ur-Rehman Toor and Stephen O. Ogunlana

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2008, vol. 8, issue 3, 192-215

Abstract: Cross-cultural projects are increasingly common in construction. Project leaders need to develop skills and competencies that can help them to effectively perform their leadership roles in such projects. In order to examine the leadership competencies and skills required to lead projects in a multicultural environment, questionnaire surveys and interviews were conducted with project leaders on a mega construction project in Thailand. A total of 78 respondents from ten different nationalities participated in the study. They belonged to various construction stakeholders such as clients, consultants, designers and contractors. Leadership competencies such as communication, teamwork, and personal and interpersonal skills were perceived to be vital for project leaders in a multicultural environment. Flexibility in decision making, persistent performance, good listening skills and problem-solving style were also highlighted among the top-rated competencies of cross-cultural leaders. In order to develop cross-cultural leadership competencies, the respondents emphasised comprehensive training and orientation as well as inclusion of cross-cultural leadership courses at graduate-level programmes in universities.

Keywords: cross-cultural leadership; construction projects; leadership competencies; leadership skills; international construction; construction industry; multicultural environment; Thailand. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=18787 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijhrdm:v:8:y:2008:i:3:p:192-215

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().